Petition

 
Free Fehriye Erdal

Political prisoner in Belgium

 
 
Ms Fehriye Erdal, 23, of Turkish nationality, was arrested in Belgium on 26 September 1999 and has been in detention ever since. Her demand for political asylum was rejected by the Belgian Minister of the Interior on 10 July 2000.
The High Commissionner for Refugees is however of the opinion that Ms Erdal cannot be sent to Turkey or to another country. That would be contrary to article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Fehriye Erdal should thus be freed, all the more so as the Belgian Council of State suspended both the decision to refuse her right of stay and the order to leave the country, delivered on 25 July 2000 by the Minister of the Interior.
Ms Erdal has been on hunger-strike since July 14. In order to demand her liberation, fifteen other people began a solidarity hunger-strike on August 5.
On 4 August, the President of the Belgian League of Human Rights, Dan Van Raemdonck wrote to the Minister of the Interior, Antoine Duquesne: "We ask you to put an end to this arbitrary detention, since expulsion from Belgium is not possible without particularly grave risks".

In consequence, the undersigned demand the immediate and unconditonal liberation of Fehriye Erdal.

 
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To be returned to Comité de solidarité avec les prisonniers politiques
rue Belliard, 197, boite 8
Téléphone: 02 280 22 28
Fax: 02 280 22 29
E-mail:  gr010471@worldonline.be