A court in İzmir has rejected an appeal to release a 16-year-old girl who was formally arrested on Feb 6 over social media posts supporting hair-braiding protests. Her lawyer had applied for the child's release after she was indicted for "making propaganda for a terrorist organization."
According to her lawyer, the girl, a high school student, was subjected to a strip search after being sent to Şakran Juvenile Prison following her arrest. She remains in detention after the İzmir 2nd Heavy Penal Court for Juveniles ruled on Feb 17 that strong suspicion persists based on the evidence collected during the investigation.
The charges stem from her posts on social media, including a video supporting the hair-braiding (kezî) protests, which emerged last month after a fighter aligned with the Syrian interim government was seen in a video cutting the braids of a dead Kurdish female fighter and sharing the footage online with degrading commentary.
Desecration of Kurdish woman fighter's body sparks hair braiding campaign on social media
Strip search
Speaking to bianet on Feb 12, the lawyer Edhem Kuruş said the child was subjected to ill-treatment, including a strip search.
“She is in a highly stressful environment, with frequent arguments and fights among the children. She told us that her head was slammed against a marble surface and that she was strip searched,” said Kuruş. “This environment is not one a child in her developmental years should be subjected to.”
He added that the child had been placed in the same unit as others detained for drug-related, theft, and assault offenses.
Court cites 'concrete evidence'
After the indictment was finalized, the defense team requested that the court lift the pretrial detention. However, the İzmir court ruled that the presence of concrete evidence and the risk of the child tampering with evidence or fleeing were grounds to keep her in custody.
The trial is set to begin on Mar 3.
The Constitutional Court had previously ruled in 2020 that the police’s authority to conduct “virtual patrols” online violated the Constitution. This power, granted in 2017 through an amendment to the Police Duties and Powers Law, allowed law enforcement to obtain identity information of internet users and conduct online surveillance for criminal investigations.
The court found the law unconstitutional, stating that personal data is protected under the Constitution and that police can only investigate individuals with a prosecutor’s order. It concluded that the measure did not meet the standards of a democratic society. (NÖ/VK)
