Law Apprentice to be Held in Custody for 3 Days Over ‘We Don’t Pay’ Tweets

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Law apprentice Yağız Timoçin, a member of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD), was taken into custody on April 8 over his tweets under the hashtag #ÖdemeYapmıyoruz (We don't pay).

The prosecutor's office has decided to extend Timoçin's period of detention until Saturday evening (April 11).

Speaking to bianet, his attorney Emre Erdal has said that Timoçin is held in custody in the Security Branch of the İstanbul Directorate of Security. As he has chronic asthma, Timoçin is in Covid-19 risk group:

"The condition of detention rooms is known by us all, it stinks and is a humid environment. For now, he is not held with another person, but there is no guarantee that no one will be brought. They already brought somebody to stay with him yesterday, they were briefly held together. He has his medication with him, but being detained for three days still poses a risk."

Only evidence is his tweets, no possibility of spoiling evidence

When Timoçin was detained, he was charged with "inciting disobedience to the law." Attorney Erdal has noted that the charged offense has changed as "inciting the public to grudge and hatred."

Erdal has also indicated that there are only his tweets under the hashtag #ÖdemeYapmıyoruz (We don't pay) in his file, he has no possibility of spoiling evinde for that reason and a three-day detention is not necessary.

What did he tweet?

Some of his tweets cited as criminal evidence are as follows:

"Capitalism is more dangerous than corona! We don't pay."

"We are condemned to poverty. We are hungry and homeless. We have nothing left to lose! We don't pay."

"Workers are given unpaid leave. They are dismissed. All of their rights are seized. They are condemned to hunger, poverty and death. The only solution is to say 'We don't pay!"

-Arkadaşlar ödeme yapıyor muyuz?

-Hayır!
-O ne?
-Yok#ÖdemeYapmıyoruz pic.twitter.com/s0ImD7tfCp

— Yağız (@YagizTimocin) April 1, 2020

(AS/SD)