* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)
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Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) former Hakkari MP Leyla Güven and HDP Diyarbakır Co-Chair Hülya Alökmen applied to the Elazığ Judgeship of Execution and objected to the penalties given to them for singing Kurdish songs and doing folk dances in the Elazığ Closed Women's Prison in eastern Turkey.
The prison administration previously decided that nine women should be deprived of their right to communication and visitation for a month. The appeal of Leyla Güven and Hülya Alökmen against this decision was examined at a hearing yesterday (September 15).
As reported by Mezopotamya Agency (MA), Güven and Alökmen attended the hearing and requested that they make their defense in Kurdish. However, the judge said that they both know Turkish and that they could make defense in Kurdish on the condition that they paid for the interpreter's expenses. The politicians rejected paying the interpreter's fee.
'It is seen that she knows Turkish'
The judge concluded that Güven and Alökmen "exercised their right to remain silent" as they rejected paying the expenses for an interpreter and had it written down in the minutes briefly as follows:
"The convict said in her defense: 'I want to give a statement in Kurdish. I want an interpreter to be assigned for me, but I do not want to meet the interpreter's fee.' The convict was told that if she paid the interpreter's fee, an interpreter would be brought to our judgeship as per the Article 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) and that she would be considered to exercise her right to remain silent if she did not want to pay the interpreter's fee and wanted to speak Kurdish. It was seen that the convict understood the questions asked by the judge in Turkish and, as can be seen in their petitions in the file, they know Turkish, the official language. As it is understood that the convict knows Turkish, the statement taken during the disciplinary investigation and the petition that she wrote to our judgeship are in Turkish, it has been considered that she wanted to exercise her right to remain silent as she did not want to pay the interpreter's fee."
Available interpreter not allowed
Güven and Alökmen's lawyer Serdar Çelebi stated that they had notified their request for defense in Kurdish and brought along a person who was competent to do interpreting at the hearing.
The judge rejected the request for taking the defense statements of Güven and Alökmen via the interpreter waiting outside the courtroom.
'Violation of right to defense'
Lawyer Çelebi said that the rejection of the request was in violation of the right to defense, briefly adding the following:
"We do not accept that the client be made to pay the interpreter's fee with the available interpreter waiting outside the courtroom rejected. This is a violation of the right to defense.
"This is arbitrary, in our opinion. Because we, including us as lawyers, take an oath and do interpreting at several courts, if needs be. There is no legal condition stipulating that the interpreter shall be a public official or be working at a registry office of the courthouse.
"The client said it, she wanted to make a defense. For this reason, we do not accept that she is considered to exercise her right to remain silent because she does not want to pay for the interpreter.
"There is an open provision about this. According to the Constitution, she has the right to express herself before the court."
Referring to the principle of individual criminal responsibility, Çelebi said that the penalty of communication was given to all prisoners in the ward without considering who chanted the anthem. Noting that it is against the related principle, the lawyer requested the penalty' removal.
The judgeship has ruled that an examination of the camera footage shall be requested and after this request is fulfilled the file shall be sent to the prosecutor's office for an opinion as to the accusations.
What happened?
Nine women prisoners held in Elazığ Women's Closed Prison in eastern Turkey were investigated for singing Kurdish songs. Dismissed Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Hakkari MP and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Leyla Güven and HDP Diyarbakır Provincial Co-Chair Hülya Alökmen-Uyanık were reportedly among those under investigation.
Investigation minutes obtained by JinNews said, "They loudly performed verbal halay [a folk dance] in an incomprehensible language" and "They sang anthems in an incomprehensible language."
The nine prisoners were requested to present a defense regarding the events on August 15. The prisoners under investigation were Hülya Alökmen-Uyanık, Beritan Anahtar, Emine Erkan, Nuray Çelik, Dicle Bozan, Fethiye Ok-Çiçek, Leyla Güven, Mihriban Şorli, Remziye Yaşar.
The women, including dismissed Hakkari MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Leyla Güven, have been deprived of their right to communication and visitation for a month for singing and dancing in Kurdish. (KÖ/SD)
