Constitutional Court rejects arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal’s application

* Photo: Emre Orman

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Constitutional Court has rejected arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal's request for deferring the execution of his prison sentence; the Court has indicated that Ünsal has "access to his right to healthcare."

Aytaç Ünsal, who had been on a death fast for his right to a fair trial for 215 days, accepted treatment. As his treatment was still ongoing, the execution of his prison sentence in the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) case was deferred. However, the Ministry of Interior announced that Ünsal was caught with three migrants while trying to flee abroad. Arrested shortly afterwards, Ünsal is now held in Edirne Type F Prison.

As his requests for deferring the execution of his prison sentence were rejected by the court, lawyer Ünsal applied to the Constitutional Court with a precautionary request on February 4, 2021.

The ruling of the top court has been shared with the public by the People's Law Bureau (HHB). The ruling of the Constitutional Court has noted that Ünsal has access to his right to healthcare.

Releasing a statement about this ruling, the People's Law Bureau has indicated that Aytaç Ünsal is not given his vitamin B in prison, the tests and examinations as to the neural damage in his feet are not properly conducted and he is held in solitary quarantine for 14 days after coming back from the hospital due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Ünsal is not in a medical state to stay on his own," the Bureau has said, demanding that the ruling of deferment of execution given by the Court of Cassation in upholding the verdicts be enforced.

What happened?

On a death fast for her right to a fair trial, arrested lawyer Ebru Timtik lost her life in the Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul on the 238th day of her death fast on August 27, 2020.

On September 4, arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal, who had also been on a death fast with the same demand, ended his death fast on the condition of being treated by independent physicians after the Court of Cassation released him on probation.

The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation handed down its judgement in the trial of Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and upheld all prison sentences, except for the ones given to lawyers Barkın Timtik, Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Ezgi Çakır.

The Chamber indicated that there was no ground to give a judgement about lawyer Ebru Timtik as she had lost her life on a death fast. The execution of lawyer Aytaç Ünsal's sentence will be deferred until his treatment ends.

On December 10, 2020, the Ministry of Interior announced that lawyer Aytaç Ünsal had been "caught with three migrant smugglers while trying to flee abroad from Edirne," a northwestern province of Turkey bordering Greece. Ünsal was detained by three others. He was arrested. (AS/SD)