Free Hikmet Bozat-Stop his Deportation

Friends and supporters of Hikmet Bozat have launched a campaign to prevent his deportation to Turkey.

Together with two other Kurdish refugees, Mr Bozat, who is now aged 39, was convicted in 1994 of conspiring to commit, and committing, acts of arson against Turkish banks in London, in protest against the Turkish government's campaign against Kurdish nationalism. This included razing villages and towns to the ground, massacring civilians and forcefully displacing millions of people to cities in western Turkey.

Hikmet Bozat, a supporter of the Kurdish liberation movement, has always denied committing the offences. He was nonetheless sentenced to serve 15 years' imprisonment, reduced on appeal in 1996 to 12 years. At the end of 1999 he reached the half-way point in this sentence and was granted early release on parole licence, in recognition of his good behaviour in prison. While imprisoned in Britain Mr Bozat has studied extensively, learning computing and taking four modules of an Open University Social Sciences degree. The granting of parole did not result in his release, and he remains a prisoner under immigration legislation, faced with the prospect of deportation to Turkey.

Hikmet Bozat's family strongly fear that if he is deported to Turkey he will be subject to brutal reprisals for his political sympathies. They believe that the nature of his criminal conviction in this country will ensure that the Turkish authorities have deep-seated reasons to target him for further persecution.
Hikmet has strong family connections in London and his brothers Rifat and Abuzer have both been granted full refugee status in Britain, with a central part of their applications for asylum being based on the fact that they would be persecuted as a result of Hikmet's political activities.

In a recent letter from Erlestoke prison, Hikmet Bozat said: 'I am still hoping to be released and to be able to continue a normal life with the members of my family who live in London. My life was already in danger in Turkey, and after this conviction it is not going to be any better. In other words, I would face death in Turkey. I hope that the British government will take this into account.'

Will Hikmet Bozat's case be another example of Britain inflicting a 'double punishment' on an overseas citizen by imprisoning them for a criminal offence and then deporting them to a country where they will face persecution and torture?

Send a letter to Jack Straw and/or to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate asking that they recognise Hikmet as a political refugee and release him from detentIon.


Home Secretary, Jack Straw
Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate,
London SW1H 9AT


I & N Directorate
Integrated Casework Unit
Wellesley Road
Croydon CR9 3RR

You can also write to your MP and ask them to write to Jack Straw and send a copy to the Campaign.
Help us to collect signatures in your community, trade union etc. For petition sheets and more information write to:


Free Hikmet Bozat Campaign
BM Free Hikmet Bozat, London WC1N 3XX


Stop the deportation-demand the release of Hikmet