Women lawyers express support for Emine Şenyaşar

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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Several women lawyers from the Women's Rights Centers of Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Muş and Urfa Bar Associations visited Emine Şenyaşar, who has been keeping a justice watch for 197 days.

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), speaking to the lawyers, Emine Şenyaşar shared what she has been going through for the past three years. Unable to hold back her tears while talking about the attack on her family at the Suruç Public Hospital, Emine Şenyaşar said, "May this atrocity end and my son be released. So that we can go home..."

Ferit Şenyaşar, who has been keeping a "justice watch" alongside her mother in front of the Urfa Courthouse, said:

"Justice would make us leave here. They are trying to make us stand up and leave. The winter is approaching and my mother is not in a state to endure it. The defense should not stay silent to this. We hold up thanks to support, we want this atrocity to end as soon as possible."

'A continuation of the violence in the 1990s'

Making a statement on behalf of the delegation of women lawyers, Nuran Aydın, the Vice Chair of the Bingöl Bar Association, said, "The struggle for justice waged by Emine Şenyaşar as a woman, a mother and a spouse alone for months is a symbol of the unlawfulness created by the language of politics and by the hand of the judiciary in Turkey."

Referring to the obstacles faced by the family during their protests for justice, Aydın said, "The systematic violence faced by Emine Şenyaşar, who has been keeping a watch in front of the courthouse for days and seeking justice by digging up the rubble, is a continuation of the violence faced by the mothers who searched the acid wells for the bones of their loved ones whom they lost in unidentified murders in the 1990s."

Promise of legal support

Emphasizing that everyone has the responsibility to hear the voice of Emine Şenyaşar, Aydın briefly added the following:

"The violence created by public officials and the crimes where they are the perpetrators are protected with a shield of impunity by the power derived from the identity of being a public official. Until the perpetrators of this case, who feel the public power behind them, are brought to justice, it is the responsibility of all of us to make Emine Şenyaşar's voice heard.

"We say that we stand with Emine Şenyaşar in her struggle for justice and declare to the public that we will follow up this trial which has been held unfairly and unlawfully; we will offer all types of legal support."

The lawyers then kept watch with the family for some time.

Emine Şenyaşar put on trial for insult

Over her speech on the 86th day of her justice watch, a lawsuit has been filed against Emine Şenyaşar on the alleged ground that she insulted ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız. Emine Şenyaşar is now facing up to 4 years imprisonment.

What happened?

During the election campaign of ruling AKP Urfa MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Suruç, Urfa on June 14, 2018, an attack turned into an armed conflict, which claimed the lives of Yıldız's brother Mehmet Şah Yıldız, shop owner Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and his sons Adil and Celal Şenyaşar.

Having lost his father and two brothers and been wounded himself in the incident, Fadıl Şenyaşar was discharged from hospital and detained on June 17. He was then arrested and sent to prison.

Demanding justice for two sons, husband and her arrested son, Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been keeping a "justice watch" in front of the courthouse.

There has been a confidentiality order on the file of the investigation into the attack for 3 years, 3 months. The second appeal of the Şenyaşar family against the "confidentiality" order on the investigation into the second attack at the Suruç Public Hospital was rejected on April 21, 2021.

The Constitutional Court, to which the family appealed, has not yet given its decision. One of the demands raised by the family on their justice watch is the removal of this "confidentiality" order. (KÖ/SD)