‘Solidarity on social media is not seen from prison’

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Protesting for her reinstatement after being discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree and still arrested in İstanbul Silivri Prison, Nuriye Gülmen appears before the judge today (January 13).

Writing to bianet ahead of this hearing, her sister Beyza Gülmen says, "My elder sister Nuriye Gülmen has been imprisoned for 518 days. This time, she could not write a letter to 'make a call to the court' for her 5th hearing on January 13. She could not send it even if she had done so. Because as if her unfair imprisonment was not enough, the prison administration has given a 'correspondence and communication' penalty to her."

Taken into custody along with six others at the İdil Cultural Center in İstanbul on August 5, 2021, Gülmen was arrested on August 11, 2020.

Gülmen and some prisoners have been banned from making a phone call for a week and writing a letter for a month because they protested to raise concerns about the problems faced by ill prisoners.

About the ban writes Beyza Gülmen: "It is not enough for them to confine a person behind four walls, they also try to completely isolate them from their loved ones. For this very reason, this time, I invite you to court on behalf of my sister. I write so that you come there and see an unfair trial. I write so that you will not leave my sister alone in the face of this unfair trial."

'Come so that my sister will see she is not alone'

Beyza Gülmen recalls that her elder sister and academic Nuriye Gülmen was "one of the thousands of public laborers who were unfairly dismissed from their jobs during the State of Emergency", which was declared following the failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.

"She chose to seek her rights on the street in a period when the state recognized no legal norm," says Beyza Gülmen and adds:

"In the face of the Statutory Decrees of the State of Emergency, she said, 'This cannot be so easy' and took to the streets, saying, 'I want my job back.' She was detained several times. But she was in front of the Yüksel Street Human Rights Monument the next day.

"She said, 'You cannot discipline us with hunger' and went on a hunger strike. She was arrested afterwards, but she did not bow down. After she was released, she sided with other people seeking justice. That is why my elder sister has been arrested for 518 days.

"Everytime my sister enters the court hall, she turns to people with all her excitement and looks around with hopeful eyes to see the ones who have come. Even a brief greeting makes her so happy. My sister knows that she is not alone but she wants to also see that you are with her.

"What is written on social media and the solidarity displayed is very important but my sister unfortunately cannot read these tweets. But if you come, she will see you and know that you are with her.

"For this reason, I invite you to the hearing at the İstanbul 28th High Criminal Court in Çağlayan on January 13, Thursday at 10 am.

"Come; so that my sister will see that she is not alone."

Was evidence collected before the operation?

Speaking to bianet, lawyer Oğuzhan Topalkara said that there was a "date mismatch" with the memory card submitted to court as evidence:

It is alleged that the criminal evidence was found in the 32 GB VERBATIM brand memory card. The report of the Security Directorate contains the examination of this memory card. But the operation against the İdil Cultural Center where this digital material was 'seized' was carried out on October 14, 2020. The date when the image reports were taken is October 13, 2021, a day before the operation.

The lawyer argued that "the Security Directorate had already had what they would find at the cultural center a day later."

He further claimed that "a cyber crimes bureau official, unaware of the operation and the fiction to unfold, started the image process and that was how it was revealed." Giving details about the process, the lawyer said that "taking images is done by a technical program and the HASH values cannot be manually interfered with as they contain sensitive findings."

"In reference to this digital material, Nuriye Gülmen has been arrested for over a year. Our all requests concerning the digital material are rejected; we can learn the truth only in another file," he noted. (AS/SD)