3 waste workers face up to 17 years in prison over their protests

Click to read the article in Turkish

Arrested during the raids on the depots of recycling workers in İstanbul and released shortly afterwards, three people are now facing a lawsuit.

The İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has indicted workers Ahmet K., Kamil A. and Mahmut A. for "resisting to prevent duty with more than one person and by using arms", "wilfully jeopardizing general security by setting a fire" and "damaging public property by burning".

The Prosecutor's Office has requested that the workers be sentenced to 3 years, 6 months to 17 years in prison on the offenses charged.

The İstanbul Directorate of Security and Ümraniye Municipality's Cleaning Works Directorate as well as 27 personnel have been cited as "complainants" in the indictment. The Prosecutor's Office has indicated that in an industrial site in İstanbul's Esenkent, "75 addresses where unregistered waste collecting and dealing was done were identified by the municipality teams on October 4, 2021 and the three waste workers in question put the paper and waste on fire during the inspection."

The indictment has also requested an increase in the sentences on the grounds that the offenses charged were committed successively.

Sent to the court for examination, the indictment has been accepted by the İstanbul Anadolu 38th Criminal Court of First Instance; the workers will now appear before the judge as per this indictment.

What happened?

In early October 2021, a series of raids were carried out by the police and district municipal police officers against the depots of waste pickers in İstanbul's Sancaktepe, Ümraniye and Ataşehir districts.

The depots of recycling workers were demolished and damaged by excavators, their hand carts and other equipment were seized. In response to this, workers started resisting; 200 workers were detained.

In the latest intervention, 10 workers were detained. Three of the workers were arrested by the court on October 5, 2021. (HA/SD)