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US court weighs appeal from group eager to assist PKK
The proceedings have been closely followed in Ankara, as one of the plaintiffs works with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for peaceful purposes. The case is a challenge by aid groups and individuals to parts of a key anti-terror law that bans “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, even when that support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.
The aid groups involved had trained PKK members based in Turkey on how to bring human rights complaints to the United Nations and assisted them in peace negotiations but suspended the activities when the US designated the PKK a terrorist organization in 1997. They also wanted give similar help to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan, or Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka, but it too was designated a terrorist organization by the US in 1997.
The Turkish government holds the PKK responsible for more than 30,000 deaths since the group launched an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984.
Several justices seemed unsure how to resolve the dispute and acknowledged legitimate points on both sides. It is the court’s first look at a terrorism-related criminal law since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
One plaintiff, Ralph D. Fertig, a retired lawyer who works with the Humanitarian Law Project, has said he wanted to help the PKK find peaceful ways to protect the rights of Kurds in Turkey and to bring their claims to the attention of international bodies.
According to a report by The New York Times which provided details of the long arguments to the court, one of the nine judges, Chief Justice John Paul Stevens, asked if there was an authentic risk that Fertig would be prosecuted were he to make a presentation on behalf of the PKK at the United Nations. The Times noted that Stevens seemed to expect a negative answer.
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the administration’s top courtroom lawyer, responded by saying that the matter would involve a “prosecutorial judgment,” the Times reported.
When a federal appeals court ruled in December 2007 that some portions of the US Patriot Act that make it a crime to provide support, including medical aid and political and human rights advocacy, to foreign entities deemed terrorist groups by the US government were unconstitutional because the language was too vague to be understood by an ordinary person, US Embassy officials in Ankara had stated that “the ruling doesn’t change the fact that the PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.”
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