Prof. İştar Gözaydın Released After 94 Days of Arrest

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After 94 days of arrest, Prof. İştar Gözaydın was released yesterday (March 30).

Gözaydın was detained from her house on December 20 and arrested on December 27. Her attorneys Murat Dinçer and Erdal Doğan had applied for her release several times yet without any success.

In the latest application made against her arrest, Attorney Doğan had submitted to İstanbul 27th High Criminal Court that the elements submitted to court as evidence for a crime were only abstract and not lawful, and that the elements of the crime of "being a member of an [illegal] organization were not given" and demanded on these grounds Gözaydın's release.

İstanbul 27th High Criminal Court in its scheduled order has ruled that Prof. Gözaydın be released with a ban on international travel.

The next hearing will be on September 12, 2017 at 1 p.m.

Petition by 396 women

396 women from different professions including the academic Esra Mungan, writer Aslı Erdoğan, journalist Banu Güven, actress Nur Sürer had published a declaration for Gözaydın's release and said "There is no guarantee that we will not be the next victims tomorrow".
In the petition, the women called "We are witnesses of İştar Gözaydın and we want to put a definite end to the investigations, the arrest and the prosecution which have turned into a crime of law due to the accusations Gözaydın had been subjected to a as a writer and a scholar".

What happened?

Prof. Gözaydın was suspended on July 21 from Gediz University when she was the head of Sociology Department due to her posts criticizing capital punishment and violence.

After being detained from her house on December 20, Gözaydın was arrested on December 27, 2016 on charge of "being a member of an armed terror organization" as part of the "FETÖ/PDY (Fethullahist Terror Organization/Parallel State Structure) Investigation" launched into Gediz University from which she was suspended.

Gözaydın faced 5 to 10 years in prison based on "the fact that she did not decline the programme offers made by Samanyolu TV Gediz University which was affiliated with the Gülen Movement even after organization (FETÖ) was exposed as a terrorist organization after December 17-25", which was put forward as an evidence for the accusations about her affiliation with FETÖ. (EA/DG)