Death Fasting Grup Yorum Member İbrahim Gökçek Not Released

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"Today is February 14. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day, but today is our marriage anniversary. I was standing trial with my wife, they have separated the files. She has not come here today, I cannot see her. If we were outside, maybe we could have the opportunity to drink pickle juice as poor children of the people, but we are deprived of that too. Four years of our five-year marriage have passed in prisons, damn this system."

Six people, including the arrested member of Grup Yorum music band İbrahim Gökçek, stood trial at the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court in Çağlayan Courthouse for the first time today (February 14).

Announcing its interim judgement, the court has only released Barış Yüksel on the condition that he gives signature at the police department once a week. The court board has ruled that the detention of all defendants, including İbrahim Gökçek, shall continue.

The court has also ruled that Gökçek be examined at the Forensic Medical Institute to receive a report as to "whether he can stay in prison or not."

The trial has been moved to the court at Silivri Penal Institution in İstanbul. The next hearing of the case will be held on March 26-27, 2020.

He could make his defense while sitting

İbrahim Gökçek, the guitarist of Grup Yorum music band, has been on a hunger strike in prison for 241 days and musician Helin Bölek has been on a hunger strike for 238 days. They demand their right to a fair trial and an end to constant police raids against their cultural center.

As İbrahim Gökçek's request for being taken to court in an ambulance was rejected, he was brought to courthouse in a separate vehicle. As he was having difficulties in standing, a chair was brought to the court hall so that he could make his defense while sitting.

CLICK - Indictment Against Death Fasting Grup Yorum Member Gökçek

Among the ones who followed the hearing today were also Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Musa Piroğlu and Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Ali Şeker as well as writers Temel Demirer and Murat Menteş and artists Pınar Aydınlar and Orhan Aydın.

Request for recusation rejected

Attorney Yaprak Türkmen raised a request for recusation: "What your court did in the trial of Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) lawyers has cast a suspicion on your impartiality, we do not think that you are impartial. As the board of the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court, you have been assigned after the lawyers were arrested again following a verdict of release.

"A scandalous verdict of this court was the one on Atilla Taş, another was the verdict of arrest for Selahattin Demirtaş and Sırrı Süreyya Önder. Similarly, several academics were penalized by the court chaired by Akın Gürlek."

Evaluating the request of the attorney in a few minutes, Presiding Judge Akın Gürlek rejected the request "on the ground that the request was ill-intentioned and aimed to prolong the trial."

Gökçek: I don't accept to be silenced

A chair was brought to court hall so that İbrahim Gökçek could make his defense. He could present his statement while sitting:

"I want to live as an artist of the people, I want all obstacles standing in the way of Grup Yorum to be removed.

"The case file was delivered to us on Tuesday. The file had over 1,000 pages and we did not have the opportunity to examine it. I want time to make my actual defense. I have come here today. But, I do not know whether I can come to this court hall ever again or the audience can see me again. I might die, I might be disabled or lose my memory. Anything can happen. I wanted to say what I had to say for that reason.

"Why has this process come here? I want to talk about this. I thank everyone, the artists, families, my attorneys. I know that you stand by me.

"Who am I? Halil İbrahim Gökçek. I am a laborer of Grup Yorum for the past 15 years. We tried to do whatever Mahsuni Şerif and Pir Sultan did to do arts. We were not court jesters. I composed songs, I played bass guitar. I gave concerts to hundreds of thousands of people in dozens of concerts. It was the case until the State of Emergency in 2016.

'What did we do for this hostility?'

"A massive political lynch was launched against Grup Yorum in 2017. Taking the coup of the FETÖ as an opportunity, the AKP has started to attack the entire opposition in the country. İdil Cultural Center, which I am a taxpayer of, has been raided for 12 times, the notes of pianos were destroyed one by one, our guitars were broken. What did we do for this hostility? We went through all these because we kept on singing our folk songs. I do not accept the silencing of our folk songs and bans on our concerts.

"A pages-long indictment was written based on the statements of witnesses who try to save themselves. Believe me, when this process is over, you will be the first ones to be stood up.

"I want justice. I want our cultural center not to be raided and want Grup Yorum members to be released. We are the sources of pride of this country. We did not bootlick the ruling party's municipalities or pocket millions of liras like others. We receive 10 or 15 thousand liras for our concerts the most. We do not get more than that.

"They put such a group to trial. They torture it, they curse it...

"We are in the 21st century and concerts are being banned. We have been added to lists. What did we do? Did we take guns in our hands? Did we kill people? Did we give an order of killing? We taught children music, we formed an orchestra. Is it a crime?"

While İbrahim Gökçek was presenting his statement of defense to the court, Presiding Judge Akın Gürlek interrupted him for a few times and wanted him to cut his defense short, indicating that he asked Gökçek's statement regarding his request for release.

Gökçek answered, "Why are you interrupting me? What is the reason for that hostility? We are here because we did what I talked about.

'I want to live and play guitar, don't be our murderers'

Gökçek continued his remarks as follows:

"I looked at the indictment partially, but these are not written about us there: It is not written there that we abused children at the cultural center, it is not written that we did drug dealing or made present of tenders. Those who do such things are roaming free outside.

"As for Grup Yorum, it gives free concerts. The equipments such as cranes and barriers that we legally requested from municipalities for these concerts have been added to the indictment, defining it as illegal. 'Terrorist' is the one who spreads fear among the public, we are not terrorists.

"Attacks against Grup Yorum should end. I was 5 years old when the group was established and it still continues. Governments have come and gone, but it still continues. Grup Yorum cannot be silenced like that. It does not keep silent so long as there are people risking death for their art. There is Helin Bölek and I. We have risked death to perform our art in today's Turkey.

"I want to live, I want to play guitar, I want to give concerts, I want to see the people I love. But the conditions for this should be established. Do not stand before our art with heavy weapons and sentences."

Addressing the court, İbrahim Gökçek said, "Don't be our murderers. We resist even for you so that you will not experience the unjust acts that the ones before you went through. We are such people."

The hearing continued with the statements of other defendants and lawyers.

What does the indictment say?

The 159-page indictment against İbrahim Gökçek starts from Kızıldere on March 30, 1972. The Counter-Terrorism (TEM) records kept about him since 2005, the statements of nine separate witnesses and the alleged "[terrorist] organizational attitude" displayed by him while serving time in prison are the only evidence cited in the indictment.

The records of İstanbul Security Directorate's Counter-Terrorism Branch go as far back as the years of 2004 and 2005. As for the records of profiling, they start from the year 2005.

In the first archive records, a witness testifying about Gökçek said, "I have learned his name and open identity from you. He is a member of the music band named Grup Yorum, which is a legal institution of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)."

Among the alleged criminal evidence cited against İbrahim Gökçek is also a chapter entitled 'His organizational attitude during detention procedures." His refusal to eat the served meal is also listed as evidence under this chapter:

"It has been understood that during the time when he was in custody, suspect İbrahim Gökçek showed resistance to the officers, chanted slogans, threatened the commissioned personnel, refused to eat the served meal and went on a hunger strike, he did not put his signature on the minutes of attorney visitation and went on a hunger strike by rejecting the served meal." (AS/SD)