Turkish coup convict out after 32.5 years in jail as 4th judicial package passed

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Tahir Canan was sentenced to 36 years in prison over the charges.

A symbolic convict of the 12 September coup years, Tahir Canan was released on April 30 in accordance with the fourth judicial package, ending his ordeal of 32.5 years in prison.

Canan was taken into custody in 1978 over the murders of two right-wing advocates, and was sentenced to 36 years in prison over the charges. Canan claimed others had already confessed to the murders, and had already been convicted.

He was then granted provisional release in 1991, 12 years after his conviction, only to return to prison two years after his release during a visit to Malatya, where he was accused of membership to the outlawed Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP). Due to the violation of his provisional release, he was not only sentenced to an additional 12 years in prison, but his initial 36-year sentence was reactivated as well.

The new judicial package gives way to the overruling of the reactivation. Turkish President Abdullah Gül approved Turkey’s much-debated judicial package, which had passed into law by Parliament on April 11. The package is intended to eliminate rulings against Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for human rights violations.