‘She was released in this case before, why is she arrested again?’

Click to read the article in Turkish

Arrested pending trial for 3 years and facing an aggravated life sentence, Ayten Öztürk appeared before the judge today (April 16).

CLICK - Defendant on trial 'because she watched a lynching'

Making a statement about her trial, the People's Law Bureau said, "They want to make the torture inflicted on our client for 6 months permanent." Öztürk had been unlawfully detained in an unknown place for 6 months and her criminal complaint about torture ended in non-prosecution.

'You need to tell us a justification'

Speaking at the hearing held by the İstanbul 3rd Heavy Penal Court today, Ayten Öztürk's attorney Seda Şaraldı said, "The prosecutor's office, in its opinion as to the accusations, has not presented any justification for the continuation of her arrest. No ruling of continued arrest can be given based on this opinion. You need to tell us a justification."

Şaraldı continued as follows: "Our client was previously released in this file. You said that the file merged in Ankara did not have any effect on the merits. Then, why is our client still arrested? If you will give a ruling of continued arrest to hide the torture, you are openly breaking the law."

However, the court has not changed its judgement and ruled that Öztürk shall remain behind bars. The next hearing is on June 10.

What happened?

In her hearing of the case held at the İstanbul 3rd Heavy Penal Court on October 3, 2019, the prosecutor's announced his opinion as to the accusations and referred to Ayten Öztürk's watching of a lynching in the neighborhood as criminal evidence against her:

"In his identification during the investigation, defendant Mesut Pekgöz identified Ayten Öztürk as the person who attended the meeting on drugs and gambling at Okmeydanı Rights and Freedoms Association and was watching the act of lynching while Selahadding Cirit was being lynched..."

Another evidence brought against Öztürk is that she attended a meeting at Okmeydanı Rights and Freedoms Association: "In the statements of ... defendant Burak Altundal, [he indicated that] he had seen Ayten Öztürk in the association building, they put the phones in the basket in the association, the personnel there told them to leave the phone..."

Öztürk is now facing a life sentence aggravated twice on charge of "deliberate killing" twice as per the Article 82/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and as per the Article 5/1 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK).

The file of the case where she is on trial "because she was caught with a fake passport" has been merged with this case.

The People's Law Bureau has made the following statement about the incident of "abduction from Lebanon" mentioned by the lawyer:

"The court case where Ayten Öztürk is now standing trial is based on the incident where a person named Selahaddin Cirit was lynched in Okmeydanı in 2008 and lost his life in hospital as a result of this. There was no arrested defendant in the case that had been going on for over 10 years.

"Ayten Öztürk was taken into custody at Beirut Airport on March 8, 2018. She was held there for five days; then, while she was being handed over to the authorities in Turkey on March 13, 2018, a bag was put over her head and she was taken to an unknown location. She was subjected to severe torture in this unknown location for 6 months.

"At the end of this 6-month period, Öztürk was left in a field in Yapracık, Ankara on August 28, 2018 with two suitcases and one backpack. A few minutes after she was left there, she was detained by the Ankara Counterterrorism teams. She was held in detention for 3 days; she was referred to the courthouse on August 31, 2018 and arrested."

While Öztürk filed a criminal complaint about this torture, her criminal complaint has ended in a decision of non-prosecution. (AS/SD)