Did Turkey hand over a death-row prisoner to the Sisi regime?

For the past two days a report has been circulating in the Arab media that an Egyptian young man who is being tried in his own country on capital charges, and who has even been sentenced to death, was forcibly handed over from Turkey to the Sisi regime. Egypt's pro-Sisi media, social media in particular, is presenting the incident in an intimidating tone, as proof that Turkey now cooperates with Sisi and that opponents will be found and brought back wherever they are. Of course, this tone is also seasoned with insolent and pompous messages saying that Turkey cannot be trusted and advising them to go back while the road is still short.

It is as though the Sisi regime had made a request and Turkey had hastily seized a person sentenced to death and sent him off.

But there is, of course, something strange here. This person had not yet been in Turkey for even 24 hours. When did the Egyptian administration request him, on the basis of which court decision and through which language and channel of communication, and when did Turkey carry out an assessment of it and say "take the criminal, do what you want"?

To be sure, the footage of the person being seized at the airport and put on a plane shows that we are faced with an unacceptable situation. But is the situation really as it is being told? We asked around and investigated.

Turkey is one of the first countries that come to people's minds as a refuge in many parts of the world because of the oppression, persecution and unjust trials they face in their own countries. The total number of people who have taken refuge in Turkey because of hardship in their own countries, among them Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Libyans, people from Myanmar, Afghans, East Turkestanis and people from many other countries, already exceeds 5 million. Although Turkey faces far greater problems and numbers than those European countries face in respecting asylum law, it is trying to cope with all these problems and numbers with its head held high.

Of course every country has a capacity for admitting asylum seekers, and Turkey has stretched those limits far beyond measure. Turkey is also a country bound by security protocols based on certain international conventions such as Interpol, and entry into the country is subject to certain rules and visa requirements. Turkey is not a country at whose door anyone without a valid visa can simply show up as they please.

Even so, Turkey shows particular care to asylum seekers coming from countries where human rights violations have become systematic.

Today Egypt is living under conditions of a military coup in which the most intense and brutal repression and human rights violations increase with each passing day, and there is not the slightest respect for human dignity or the right to a fair trial. Under these conditions the whole world witnessed a court decision in which death sentences for more than 800 people were read out all at once within half an hour, without even being given the right to defend themselves and without being tried. Therefore the concept of "a person sentenced to death" has no value whatsoever when it comes from today's Egyptian authorities. At first glance, it is read not as a sign of a real crime committed in Egypt, but as a sign that opponents are being purged on flimsy pretexts.

For this reason, during the Sisi regime Turkey has not handed over, and will not hand over, anyone, whether on the grounds that there is a death sentence against him or any other sentence.

Moreover, it is now also known that the coup administration in Egypt abuses Interpol's facilities by attributing common crimes to some political opponents and putting them on wanted lists not on political grounds but on the grounds of ordinary criminal offenses. For that reason the red notices that Egypt issues to Interpol also no longer carry any weight. And it is very well known that Egypt itself lets Turkish citizens wanted for the putschist FETÖ or for other real crimes run free in Egypt.

A great many people are being tried in Egypt on flimsy pretexts, yet in the 6 years that have passed, not to mention a trial, not even an investigation has been opened into the criminal killing of three thousand people by volleys of fire, and into the bodies, which had been gathered in the square's tents after the killing, being collected with scoop loaders and burned. What justice are we talking about?

Under these circumstances, it is out of the question for Turkey to hand over any Egyptian citizen to Egypt because there is a death sentence or any other sentence against him.

So how was Muhammed Abdülhafiz, who has a death sentence against him, put on a plane to Cairo and sent to his country?

According to the information I obtained from officials of the Directorate General of Migration Management, the person came to Turkey on 16 January as a transit passenger traveling from Mogadishu to Cairo, but instead of going to the Cairo flight, he went to the passport point at 07.19 and wanted to enter Turkey. He wanted to, but he had no valid visa. The e-visa he held had been obtained only because his age limits had been declared incorrectly, and it is a visa regarded as forged or invalid. After he was told that he could not enter, the routine practice in such cases is to send the person back on the plane he arrived on or to Cairo, his transit destination.

According to the information given by Migration Management officials, the person made no International Protection Request in any way during this time. Since there was no such request, he was directed, with the status of "inadmissible passenger," to be sent either to the point he came from or to Cairo. If there is such a request, the return procedure is certainly halted until the request is concluded.

Why Abdülhafiz, despite having a sentence against him, did not make an International Protection Request is of course a question that must be asked.

The airport officials, of course, had no way of knowing his special situation unless this person made such a statement. But could they be charged with a fault such as failing to correctly interpret the resistance the person showed?

Did Abdülhafiz want to explain his situation but could not because of a language problem?

In any case, did he have to be handcuffed, put on the plane and sent by force?

All these are questions that need to be clarified. The officials of the Directorate General of Migration Management, whose extremely humane and helpful approach to migrants in difficulty I have always witnessed, informed me that the incident had greatly saddened our Minister of Interior, Mr. Süleyman Soylu as well, and that he is closely following the investigation opened on his instruction.

I hope that scenes like this, which Turkey, rightly distinguished throughout the world for its humanitarian policy, does not deserve, will not be seen again.