LAWYERS' DEATH FAST
Minister of Interior calls Ebru Timtik a 'terrorist,' condemns bar for commemorating her
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Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu called lawyer Ebru Timtik a "terrorist" and "denounced" the İstanbul Bar Association for commemorating her following her death on Friday (August 28).
"I strongly condemn, denounce those who hang a terrorist organization member's photograph on İstanbul Bar Association," he said during a graduation ceremony of gendarmes and coastguards, which he attended via teleconference.
Timtik, along with 17 other lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), was convicted of membership of a terrorist organization based solely on statements by anonymous witnesses, which led her and Aytaç Ünsal, another lawyer convicted in the case, to start a death fast demanding a fair trial. The Court of Cassation is currently examining the lawyers' appeal.
Soylu said that he would file a criminal complaint against those who hung the poster and accused them of being against "the nation's values."
The poster was immediately removed by the police, he added.
Following Soylu, Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül also targeted the İstanbul Bar over Timtik's poster. Speaking at a district congress of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Antep province on Saturday, he said, "It is unacceptable that the bar association is becoming the backyard of illegal and marginal organizations."
Following Timtik's death, lawyers wanted to bring her body to the bar association for a commemoration event, which was not allowed by the authorities. She was still commemorated and a photograph of her was hung on the bar's building.
In response to the ministers, he İstanbul Bar released a written statement on Saturday, saying that the poster was not hung by bar officials but was hung against their will.
It said that the poster was later removed by bar officials, not by the police, contradicting the Minister of Interior's statement.
The bar association then hung a flag of Turkey on the same place to "indicate its stance," it added.
The bar association also noted that the verdict against Timtik has not become final and reminded the minister of the presumption of innocence.
What happened?
In the trial of the Proggrssive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), Ebru Timtik was sentenced to 13 years 6 months in prison Aytaç Ünsal to 10 years, 6 months last March for "membership of a terrorist organization" based on statements by a witness, who later stated that his testimony shouldn't be taken into account due to his mental condition. Together with Timtik and Ünsal, the court sentenced 18 ÇHD lawyers to a total of 159 years in prison. The appeals court, which upheld the lawyers' sentences in October 2019, was revealed to give the verdict without reviewing lawyers' appeal. After this trial process, Timtik and Ünsal started hunger strikes on January 2 and February 2, respectively, and eventually turned their strike into a death fast, which Ünsan still continues. Timtik and Ünsal were forcibly hospitalized on July 30 after the court refused to release them despite a Forensic Medicine Institution report stating that they were "not in a state to stay in prison. Timtik was held in the Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul's Bakırköy district and Ünsal is currently held in Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital in the Küçükçekmece district. Both hospitals are "pandemic hospitals." The case filed against the lawyers of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) is still pending the final verdict of the Court of Cassation. An application was made to the Constitutional Court for arrested lawyers Timtik and Ünsal on August 10, 2020. The application to the supreme court noted that "while they should have been released based on the reports prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institution, they were unjustly and unlawfully arrested and their health conditions were deteriorating in hospital conditions where they were held." Within this context, the attorneys of Ünsal and Timtik requested that the Constitutional Court write an official letter to the local court, ordering the release of arrested lawyers as a precaution. Rejecting death fasting lawyers' request for release, the Constitutional Court neither examined the medical reports nor their statements on not being treated at hospital. "There is no serious danger posed to their material or immaterial integrity," it concluded. The İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institution announced its report on lawyer Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal on July 30, 2020 and said that neither of them was in a state to stay in prison. |
(EKN/RT/AÖ/VK)