Asiye Güzel Zeybek, Turkey
The Turkish editor Asiye Güzel Zeybek was arrested in February 1997 during a public protest over allegations that the Turkish government had ties to Mafia groups. Zeybek, editor-in-chief of the radical newspaper Atilim, was charged under Article 168 of the Penal Code with having connections to the now-illegal Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, specifically with running and distributing the MLCP journal Isçinin Yolu (Worker's Path). The first of a series of trials of the charges against her began in February 2001, four years after her arrest. On October 8, 1997, Zeybek filed a complaint against eight officers of the Anti-Terror Branch of the Istanbul Police for subjecting her to severe torture, including repeated rape while interrogating her over a period of 13 days. The policemen were brought to trial in November 1998, but the case was abandoned after the court held that a statute of limitations prevented further legal action. In December 2000, Zeybek was reportedly hit by bullets in her back and leg during a police raid on her prison. She suffered temporary paralysis and has not yet fully recovered from her injuries. Zeybek was freed on 5 June 2002, pending a final court hearing. On 16 October 2002, she was sentenced to 12½ years in prison. When the sentence was announced, Zeybek was in Sweden to receive the PEN Tucholsky Award, granted annually to writers who have been persecuted, threatened, or in exile. Zeybek remains in Sweden and has lodged an appeal against her sentence to the Supreme Court of Turkey.

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