House raids in Diyarbakır: 2 journalists taken into custody

* Photo: Archive

Click to read the article in Turkish

House raids were carried out in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır in the morning hours yesterday (March 20).

Journalists Ertuş Bozkurt and Mikail Barut have been taken into custody during the raids. While the reason for the journalists' detention had yet been unknown as of yesterday morning, the journalists were reportedly detained as there had been detention warrants against them.

CLICK - 'No one can be detained in a midnight raid unless being caught red-handed'

'Midnight detentions to end,' said Erdoğan

Unveiling the Human Rights Action Plan on March 2, 2021, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that "the practice of detention at midnight was ended".

Erdoğan announced that "the fundamental principles of the Criminal Procedure had been reinforced and the scope of catalog crimes had been narrowed in the light of the principles of 'proportionality'."

Noting that "not only the aspect of legislation was addressed regarding the issue", Erdoğan stated that "the setbacks caused by practice were also brought to the agenda". Erdoğan briefly said:

"We don't want our citizens to be deprived of their freedom due to detention warrants issued just to take their statements.

"With the Action Plan, we are putting an end to practices such as catching and detaining outside working hours or finding in a hotel room in the middle of the night and taking into custody just to take a statement. The procedures to take statements will operate 24/7". (RT/SD)