Lawyers in Custody Asked of Their Conversations with Journalists

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Lawyers in custody in prosecution questioning were asked about their meetings with their clients in prison and phone conversations of journalists to make report.

İrfan Arasan, Ayşe Acınıklı, Hüseyin Boğatekin, Şefik Çelik, Adem Çalışcı, Ayşe Başar, Tamer Doğan, Ramazan Demir and Mustafa Rüzgar from Libertarian Jurists Association (ÖHD) had been taken into custody along with 20 people in home raid on March 16, Wednesday.

The prosecutor wanted to take the testimony at the Security

Prosecutor Gökhan Yolasığmaz wanted to have them be brought to Anti-Terror Branch instead of İstanbul Justice Palace in Çağlayan to take their testimony.

The lawyers used their right to remain silent and stated that they wanted to testify to investigation prosecutor but their demand was rejected.

Lawyer Banu Güveren speaking to bianet expressed that all four prosecutors tried to take their testimony with police, but such a practice cannot be performed on lawyers and this is the first time they encountered such a thing.

“There are four prosecutors. They take testimony at Security Directorate. However, the lawyers didn’t want to give testimony under these circumstances and used their right to remain silent. Normally, prosecutor carries out investigation of lawyer but today, liberty of law and principle of impartiality have been set aside. The lawyers whose testimonies are taken are put in the same prison again”.

He asked about bianet conversation

The prosecutor asked Ramazan Demir, one of the lawyers in custody, about his phone interview with Elif Akgül from bianet who called to make report.

Akgül at that time had called Demir to receive his opinion on plea in mother tongue in KCK trial.

May 1: “Protest used as an excuse to attack on security forces”

Prosecutor Yolasığmaz has defined May 1, Labor Day as follows:

“Protest known as Labor Day but used as an excuse by marginal illegal organization members to enter zones prohibited by Governorship, and attack on security forces, public vehicles with rocks and clubs…”

They asked of their relatives as well

The questions “Do you have any relatives conducting activities within PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party)?” and “Do you visit your imprisoned relative?” were posed to lawyer Demir.

Organizational activity in football game

The lawyers were also asked of which political parties and NGOs they are member of.

The Prosecutor Yolasığmaz also asked, “What sort of organizational activities did you carry out during Gezi protests? Please tell about the event that you define as ‘game’ to not decipher illegal protest”.

Whether they will be released, or referred to judicature will be clear after their questioning is completed. (AS/TK)