ANKARA, Jan 23 (A.A) - Parliamentary Justice Commission started on Wednesday to debate draft adjustment law which foresees amendments to Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and some other laws.
Draft law, envisaging amendments toward broadening rights in Turkish Penal Code (TCK), Anti-Terrorism Law, State Security Court (DGM) Law, and Criminal Trial Procedure Law (CMUK), submitted to Parliamentary Chairmanship.
The draft law, which is also defined as ''Adjustment Laws'' is the fist chain of a serious of amendments which is expected to be passed from the parliament in the coming period. The draft law is based on the draft which was prepared by the EU General Secretariat.
With an amendment foreseen to Article 159 of the TCK, which is about ''insult to Constitutional institutions and public personalities'' the phrase ''Republic'' and ''to the moral personality of government'' will be excluded, and ''Turkish Nation'', ''Turkish Republic'' and ''Council of Ministers'' phrases will be brought instead.
With the new arrangement, the heaviest punishment will be reduced from six years to three years. The punishment, given to Turkish citizens living abroad who insult Turkish identity in foreign countries, will be increased one third of the previous punishment.
The draft law arranges Article 159 as:
''Those who insult Turkish identity, Turkish Nation, Turkish State, Parliament, Council of Ministers, ministries, court house, military forces or security forces of the state will be given imprisonment terms up to three years.''
Those who openly curse laws of Turkish Republic and resolutions of parliament will be given imprisonment terms up to six months. If this crime is committed in a foreign country by a Turkish citizen, this punishment will be increased one third.
With an amendment made to Article 312 of the TCK, titled ''incitement that is not open to crime'', existing article is simplified and the phrase ''incitement of people to disobedience to laws'' is excluded and ''incitement to call people not to abide by laws'' is included instead.
''Those who praise a crime openly or those who incite people not to abide by laws will be given up to two years imprisonment terms,'' it said.
Those who openly incite people to enmity and hatred basing on social class, race, religion, or regional difference will be given up to three years imprisonment terms.
The draft law lifts the fines foreseen in TCK's articles 159 and 312.

Draft law on adjustment which was prepared in parallel with the constitutional amendments re-arranges propaganda crimes in Anti-Terrorism Law and foresees punishments for propaganda crimes if these crimes incite people to carry out terrorist activities and attacks.
The draft law which amends the second paragraph of article 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Law titled ''terrorist organizations'', cover the provision about ''fining those who aid and abet the terrorist organizations and who make propaganda regarding an organization in a way it incited others to carry out terrorist activities to pay money between 500 million and 1 billion Turkish liras (TL) or imprisoning the above mentioned people between one to five years even if their actions create another crime.''
With this regulation, the imprisonments were preserved while the fine which is 50-100 million TL is increased by ten-fold.

-IF THE CRIME IS COMMITTED THROUGH PRESS-

The draft which totally changes the eighth article of the Anti-Terrorism Law titled ''propaganda against inseparable integrity of the state'', reduces the sub-limit of the punishments to be given to propaganda aiming at harming inseparable integrity of the state and nation of Turkish Republic from 2 to 1 year and the ceiling level from 5 to 3 years.
The sub-level of fine to be charged for these crimes is increased by 20-fold to 1 billion TL and the ceiling level is increased by 30-fold to 3 billion TL.
The draft changes the expression saying ''aiming to harm inseparable integrity of the country and nation of Turkish Republic irrespective of the method, purpose or thought'' as ''with the aim to harm inseparable integrity of the country and nation of the Turkish Republic.''
Also, if the written or verbal propaganda aiming to harm the inseparable integrity of the state is committed through a periodical determined in the Press Law, the fine to be charged from the periodical will be decreased. The current regulation foresees a fine until 90 percent of the approximate selling amount of the periodical belonging to the previous month. The draft reduces this rate from 4 to 3.
The draft adds a paragraph to the eighth article about the propaganda crime and regulates the punishments to be given to the propaganda considered as a crime if it is made through some published works or other mass communication devices.
In accordance with this, the draft envisages imprisonment from 6 month to 2 years or fine between 1 billion to 3 billion TL for the people who commit propaganda through mentioned devices and to the owners of mass communication devices.
Also, the draft law notes that the court can ban broadcasting of radio and television channel from one to seven days.
The draft law also includes the provision to increase the punishment to be given to propaganda crimes which aim to harm integrity of the state and nation if these crimes are committed through periodical or other mass communication devices by one-third.
The Adjustment Bill which has been presented to Parliment proposes to end lengthened custody period for crimes committed as a group and to shorten the custody periods in Emergency Rule regions.
The bill cancels the article which changes the custody period as seven days for crimes committed with a group of three people or over. Under the law, the custody period for such crimes could be a maximum of four days.
For crimes committed in Emergency Rule regions, the four day custody period could be increased to seven days upon the request of the prosecutor. Under the current law, this period is seven to ten days.
The bill also states that the suspect could meet with his lawyer at all times. Under the new law, a relative of the suspect or a person designated by him will be informed about the suspect's arrest without any delay.
The bill which is consisted of nine articles is expected to be discussed at the Justice Commission in the coming days.

While giving information about the new regulation at the Commission, Turk said that the number of suits filed under Articles 159 and 312 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and Articles 7 and 8 of Anti-Terrorism Act decreased in 2000 when compared to the suits filed in 1999.
Noting that the amendments undertaken in laws constitute steps for further democracy, Turk said that adjustment laws have to be adopted following the amendments undertaken in the Constitution.
''The amendment foreseen to be undertaken in Article 312 of Turkish Penal Code protects basic values, and it broadens the right to freedom of thought and expression,'' he said.
Turk noted that 307 suits were filed in 1999 under Article 159 of Turkish Penal Code (TCK), adding that 324 suits were filed in 2000 under Article 312 of TCK.
Within the scope of Anti-Terrorism Act; 1,260 suits were filed in 1999 and 631 suits in 2000.