Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 21:01:57
Subject: M-G: LESBIEN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE


Subject: 
          AMNESTY DELEGATION MEETS ROMANIAN
          AMBASSADOR IN LESBIAN PRISONER
     Date: 
          Fri, 13 Feb 1998 13:27:59 -0500
     From: 
          Amnesty International <amnesty-AT-oil.ca>
 Reply-To: 
          owner-amnesty-l-AT-host.oil.ca
       To: 
          amnesty-l-AT-oil.ca




* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
For Immediate Release: 12 FEBRUARY 1998

AMNESTY DELEGATION MEETS ROMANIAN AMBASSADOR IN LESBIAN PRISONER OF
CONSCIENCE CASE

A delegation from Amnesty International UK (AIUK)'s Gay Lesbian
Bisexual
and Transgender (GLBT) Network and Amnesty officials has met with
H.E. Radu
 Onofrei, the Romanian Ambassador in London, to call for the
immediate
release of Mariana Cetiner.

Mariana, aged 40, is currently being held in Aiud Penitentiary under
the
Romanian Penal Code's notorious Article 200. She is serving a three
year
jail sentence imposed in 1996 for allegedly attempting to seduce
another
woman and causing public scandal. There were reports that she was
brutally
treated by prison guards in Ta[^]rgsor last year.  Amnesty
International's
GLBT Chair, Carol Budd, and Linda Wilkinson of the Network, called
for
Mariana's immediate and unconditional release. The delegation also
raised
concerns about a number of other homosexual prisoners who are
believed to
be currently detained for consensual homosexual acts in Romania. They
called for the immediate removal from the Romanian law of the
paragraphs in
 Article 200 which criminalise homosexual acts between consenting
adults
causing "a public scandal".

"Mariana is the first woman the organisation has ever adopted as a
prisoner
 of conscience for homosexual acts", said Linda Wilkinson. "Her case
highlights the continuing abuse of fundamental human rights and the
criminalising of loving relationships", she added.

The delegation heard that a Special Committee had been set up in
January by
 the Romanian Ministry of Justice to review Article 200 with a view
to
remove it from the statute book, with the exception of homosexual
acts
involving coercion with violence and sex with minors. The Ambassador
assured the delegation that they should shortly see significant
process on
this issue in Romania.

On St. Valentine's Day (14 February) members of Amnesty International
UK's
GLBT Network are writing letters and sending gifts of non-perishable
food
to Mariana Cetiner at Aiud Penitentiary, Judets Alba Iulia, Romania.
Others are invited to do likewise.

Appeals to the Romanian authorities calling for the release of
Mariana
Cetiner and others jailed for consensual homosexual acts, and for the
repeal of Article 200 should be sent to: The President, D-lui Emil
Constnantinescu, Excelenti Sale, Presedintele Romaniei, Palatul
Cotroceni,
Bd. Geiuli 1, 76238 Bucuresti, Romania or c/o the Romanian Embassy, 4
Palace Green, London W8.

For details of AIUK's GLBT Network please write to AIUK, 99-119
Rosebery
Ave, London EC1R 4RE.
.../ENDS

Amnesty International: working worldwide for the release of prisoners
of
conscience, fair trials for political prisoners and an end to
torture,
extrajudicial executions, "disappearances" and the death penalty.





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