Turkey, the trial against forensic expert Sebnem Korur Fincanci, president of the Medical Association

ROME – History. On 26 October 2022, as part of an increasingly violent crackdown on human rights and the medical profession in particular, the Turkish government arrested Sebnen Korur Fincanci, a world-renowned medical examiner and professor, president of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA ), an independent medical organization that represents almost 90 percent of healthcare professionals in Turkey. After reviewing a video released by the Firat agency of two people in Iraqi Kurdistan exposed to toxic gases and showing signs of delusional behavior, Fincanci called for an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons. After the request, the police broke into her home and arrested her on charges of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.

Fincanci’s career. The forensic expert has worked in the field of identifying victims of torture and ill-treatment for the past thirty years. He helped draft the Istanbul Protocol, the United Nations-approved guide to forensic and clinical investigations and documentation of torture and ill-treatment. He has participated in numerous international forensic investigations, including for the Hague tribunal. For your service always attentive to the cause of rights, in 2017 you were awarded the “Physicians for Human Rights”, (MEDU).

The repression of rights in Turkey. Fincanci’s detention, for charges that are clearly politically motivated, is one of the stages of the campaign implemented by the Turkish government to intimidate and silence medical professionals who report possible damage to health as a consequence of human rights violations. In May 2019, for example, an Ankara court sentenced eleven members of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association, including Fincanci, to prison on charges of speaking out about the dangers of war to public health and emphasizing responsibility that doctors have to defend life and help keep the peace. The court convicted them because “they made terrorist propaganda by provoking the public to hatred and enmity”. On that occasion, Fincanci was sentenced to more than two years in prison. She was later acquitted in 2020, but that didn’t stop Turkish authorities from re-arresting her. Her detention is part of a crackdown Erdogan is waging against the TMA as a whole.

Amnesty International’s complaint. “Prosecuting a forensic expert for calling for an independent investigation into the alleged use of banned chemical weapons is a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system. Instead of launching unsubstantiated charges against one of Turkey’s top forensic doctors, the authorities should allow her to continue doing her job freely and without fear of reprisals,” he writes. Amnesty International in a statement. In December, the organization in defense of human rights together with dignity, Human Rights Watch, International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, Physicians for Human Rights, Redress and World Medical Association have launched an appeal to ask the Turkish authorities to release Professor Fincanci.