Professor İştar Gözaydın Arrested

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Professor İştar Gözaydın has been arrested.

Gözaydın was detained from her house on December 20.

Gözaydın’s arrest was announced by her spouse İskender Savaşır on Twitter.

She 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.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported that Gözaydın has been arrested 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.

Of the 16 detained people within the scope of the investigation, eight people including Gözaydın were arrested whereas the other eight were released on probation, the AA added.

About İştar Gözaydın

Gözaydın (April 5, 1959 – İstanbul, Turkey) has studied at the New York University School of Law and Georgetown University International Law Institute, and holds an LLD degree from the Istanbul University.^[2] Prof. Gözaydın also produces and presents program aired by Açık Radyo (Open Radyo), in Istanbul since 1995.

A professor of law and politics, she is also a founder of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a human rights organization in Turkey. She was a research fellow at the University of London, Birkbeck College Birkbeck, University of London in 2009 and she was a Fulbright Program scholar in the U.S. in 1986-87. (BK/TK)