‘I want my job back’ protesters to be paid damages for ‘false detention’

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Protesting their discharge from public service and demanding their reinstatement, saying "We want our jobs back", teachers Nursel Tanrıverdi and Selvi Polat have won the lawsuit for damages that they filed against their detention during their protests at Bakırköy Square in İstanbul.

Speaking to bianet, Tanrıverdi says that they have won 21 lawsuits for damages on charge of "unjustified detention".

"Nearly 80 investigations and lawsuits were filed against us throughout our resistance; we have been acquitted in 60 cases, including the one that led to our arrest. A decision of non-prosecution has been given in 20 investigations. We are now receiving damages," adds Nursel Tanrıverdi.

"They are harming the state for the sake of ending the resistance here and it is paid from the taxes of citizens," says Tanrıverdi: "The clear sign of their defeat in the face of the insistence of this resistance is these damages. Our resistance has been going on for 201 weeks."

One of the ruling of damages was signed by judge Coşkun Kurt, who previously imposed a judicial control measure on the teachers, barring them from approaching the square more than 200 meters, and, then, arrested the teachers on the grounds that they did not abide by this judicial control measure. The then judge of criminal judgeship of peace, Coşkun Kurt is currently the Presiding Judge of the İstanbul 2nd Heavy Penal Court.

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Teachers Nursel Tanrıverdi and Selvi Polat who were discharged from public service by the Statutory Decree no. 686 on February 7, 2017, when the State of Emergency declared after the failed coup attempted on July 15, 2016 was still in effect. They have been staging protests with the slogan "We want our jobs back" at the Bakırköy Square in İstanbul since January 20, 2017. Since then, they have been detained, arrested and released many times.

They also appealed to the Council of Judges and Prosecutors and filed a complaint against the penal judges of peace and prosecutors, indicating that though the legality of their protest demonstrations had been confirmed by several verdicts of acquittal, "the judgeship turned the issue into a personal matter and acted with the intention of teaching them a lesson."

Following this complaint, they were arrested again; they were released from prison after serving 14 days behind bars.

Both pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages

According to the verdict handed by the İstanbul 2nd Heavy Penal Court on December 10, 2020, teachers Nursel Tanrıverdi and Selvi Polat will be paid both pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.

In his application on their behalf, attorney Ferdi Yamar said that "his clients were both financially and morally damaged by their false detention."

The application of the attorney was about the teachers' detention on July 29, 2019 at 2 p.m. and their release at 5.15 p.m. on the same day, without their statements being taken. The teachers have been acquitted in the lawsuit that was filed against them after the incident.

In the detailed ruling of the local court in the suit for damages, it has been ruled that one teacher shall be paid 100 thousand lira in pecuniary and 100 thousand lira in non-pecuniary damages. Ferdi Yamar will also be paid 1,600 lira by the Treasury as attorney's fee.

In another suit for damages, the İstanbul 7th Heavy Penal Court has ruled for similar amounts of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.

The detailed ruling has noted that on the grounds of "false detention", 100 thousand lira of non-pecuniary damages and the statutory interest to be calculated as of the day when the plaintiff was detained will be paid to her, considering "her economic and social situation at the time of her detention, the period when she was deprived of her freedom due to the unjustified protection measure, the negative effects of this situation and that the pecuniary damages will not make the person rich." (AS/SD)