Acquitted Turkish man gets less than $3 in compensation after 11 years in jail

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul man who served over 11 years in prison before being acquitted will receive just under 9 Turkish Liras (less than $3) in compensation, after the legal expert calculated the amount based on the minimum wage of the period when he was jailed, daily Habertürk reported on April 12.

The man, identified only as Hüseyin A., was detained on May. 26, 1980 when he was 20 years old, and was sentenced to prison over membership of the outlawed far-left Dev-Sol (Revolutionary Left). 

He was tried under arrest with 1,243 suspects before being acquitted of 13 charges including “killing, attempting to kill, and bombing,” after a 32-year legal process and serving 11 years and 59 days in prison.

The other two charges against him, “attempting to remove the constitutional order” and “using a fake ID,” were dropped due to the statute of limitations.

He then filed a complaint for compensation worth 1.2 million liras, 200,000 liras of which was for monetary damages and the rest was for spiritual damages. The expert in the case calculated the compensation as 8.78 million liras but decreased this to just 8.80 liras by removing six zeros, taking into account the runaway inflation at the time he was jailed.  

Legal experts expressed surprise at the small amount of compensation, saying it should have been updated. 

“Legal interest should also have been included, corresponding with the compensation calculated between 1980 and 1991. Otherwise, it is not fair,” compensation law expert lawyer Çelik Ahmet Çelik told Habertürk.

“The court could now make the expert reexamine the case. The complainant also has the right to appeal against the compensation ruling,” he added.