Prosecution's Objection Leads to Arrest of Eight KESK Members

At the end of May, the police carried out operations against KESK, the trade union confederation of public employees. Eight of the members were released after being taken into police custody, but folllowing the objection of the prosecution at Izmir's 10th Heavy Penal Court, they have now been arrested.

The court decided on the arrest of  Şeyda Demir, Songül Morsümbül, Gülçin İspert, Mine Çetinkaya, Meryem Çağ, Yüksel Özmen, Aziz Atikol and  Abdulkadir Demir. The number of arrested members has thus risen to 22.

Emirali Şimşek, general secretary of KESK, told bianet that they would file a criminal complaint against the Ministry of Justice today (18 June).

On 28 May, the police had carried out raids in Istanbul, Izmir, Manisa, Van and Ankara, and had taken 35 members of KESK and the associated Eğitim-Sen educational trade union into custody. Six had been released on the following day.

The Izmir court had first decided to arrest 14 of the 29 people left in custody: Yüksel Mutlu, Hasan Soysal, Hasan Umar, Haydar Demir, Şermin Güneş, Harun Gündeş, Abdurrahman Daşdemir, Mehmet Hanefi Kuriş, Nami Özgen, Elif Akgül Ateş, Nihat Keni, Sakine Esenyılmaz, Mustafa Beyaz and Aydın Güngörmez.

Thirteen people had been released after the investigation.

The operations have been considered a continuation of operations against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on 14 April. (BÇ/AG)