Court Rules for Aggravated Life Sentence by 'Conscientious Conviction'

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"My Name is Mustafa Koçak, I'm 28 years old. I lived with my family in Esenyurt, Istanbul until my arrest. As one of the four children of a poor family, I spent my childhood and youth working in various jobs, from apprenticeship to mobile breakfast clerk, in order to contribute to my family. My life changed when I was detained on September 23, 2017."

Koçak was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment by the İstanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court on July 11.

The hunger strike he began on July 3, demanding the right to a fair trial, is now on the 56th day.

Ezgi Çakır, the lawyer of Koçak who is in the Type-T Prison No. 2 in Şakran, İzmir, said in a statement to bianet, "His letters are not sent out because they are considered as propaganda, and the letters written to him are not delivered because they would boost his morale."

She said, "Although the decision is not finalized yet, conditions of an aggravated life sentence are being applied on Koçak." The case is in the court of appeal.

Koçak, charged with supplying weapons to a terrorist organization, has been convicted of violating the Constitution.

The court's decision on him stated the conclusion that he had committed the crime was "reached through a conscientious conviction":

"...The conviction of conscience that the accused has committed the crime of 'using force and violence, attempting to abolish or replace the order prescribed by the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, or attempting to prevent the actual implementation of this order' has been reached as a result of the trial of our court."

"No fingerprints, no surveillance records"

The file contains statements of witnesses and secret witnesses as the justification for the conviction.

Witness B.E. says, "While we were having dinner and chatting in the meatball shop, he (Mustafa Koçak) said that he had supplied the weapon when we were talking about the organization's actions and strategies," in his/her statement.

C.Y., another witness, went abroad after his release and said that his/her statement about Koçak was not true and that he/she signed the statement under threat.

But Attorney Çakır said that Koçak was convicted based on witness statements in this manner, and added:

"There is nothing wrong with the criminal investigation of the weapon, the camera footage and the phone records in the case file, namely, all the objective evidence that could arouse suspicion on the defendants. There are no fingerprints, no phone records, no camera records."

"You'll never see the light of day again"

Mustafa Koçak wrote about the 12 days he spent in custody in his letter to his lawyer:

"I was detained in the middle of the street in Mecidiyeköy and taken to the İstanbul Police Department on Vatan Street. Here they put a statement in front of me, "Give your statement in line with this and get out." "Otherwise we will arrest you and you'll never see the light of day again." They said, 'You help us, we help you, you live comfortably.'

"I was subjected to psychological and physical torture for not accepting it. The beating they sustained incessantly was the most 'innocent' thing they did. They hanged me by my arms in while I was handcuffed from the back, took off my clothes, put a sack over my head, and tin cans over it. They percussed tin cans on my head for dozens of minutes. They swore at me, my mother, my father and my sister. They have threatened to rape my pregnant sister. These tortures lasted 12 days, I was arrested on October 4, 2017." (AS/VK)