Istanbul 4th High Criminal Court ordered the arrest of 7 defendants who were detained and released in Gezi Park protests, after an objection submitted by the case prosecutor.
On June 18 Gezi Park detainees Alper Merdoğlu, Emre Horasanlı, Emre Güzel, Gökbey Gül, İsmail Işık Sapmaz, Murat Tözen and Özkan Ekinci were order to stand trial for violating Turkey’s Law 2911 of Public Meetings and Demonstrations.
Initially, the court released all 7 defendants for reasons associated with “the nature of crime, defendants’ having a permanent residence and impossibility of evidence manipulation”.
However, General Attorney’s Office of Istanbul objected the decision of court on June 21. Today the court announced its decision on the objection, issuing arrest warrants on 7 defendants - who are mainly doctors, sculptures, engineers and students.
The verdict listed the “crime evidences” as follows:
“Gas masks, sea googles, face rugs, construction helmets, bike helmets, gloves, slings, Palestinian scarves, unfired gas bomb cartridges, tourniquets, plasters and compress-tissues.”
“They attack police with slogans”
The verdict also defined Gezi Park protests as “demonstrations that extended the barrier against public order and peace”.
The arrest orders also claimed that protestors used force against police officers by chanting slogans such as “Government resign”, “Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance”.
Protestors’ “persistence on their demonstrations” marked another “crime evidence”. (AS/BM)
