METU Protestors Receive Travel Ban

On Saturday evening, an Ankara court released 8 university students who were detained after Friday police raids to investigate last week's protests at METU.

Following police raids last Friday, 10 university students were detained. Sercan Çınar from Greens and the left party of future and Bedirhan Şen from Youth Opposition Group were released by the prosecutor after their testimony, while other detainees Mustafa Bozkurt, Mert Atmaca, Hasan Koç, Can Kaya, İlhan Aslan, Batuhan Uluergüven, Cem Dursun and Güven Kazım Altunkaya stood trial for terrorism charges.

The court ruled the release of 8 students under juridical control and non-domestic travel ban.

"The charges are totally ridiculous. In the beginning, they were only related to property damage. Then PM Erdogan made a speech on TV and students were charged with terrorism," Deniz Özbilgin, students' attorney, told sendika.org. "Using electronic recordings as evidence and pointing out witnesses, Güven Kazım Altunkaya has claimed that he was not in the protest scene. The prosecutor ignored all, charged him with terrorism. This alone proves how wrong the system is functioning."

The prosecutor defended his charges by claiming that detained students were allegedly members of terrorist organizations such as THKP-C, Dev-Yol, Dev-Genç, DHKP-C and MLKP. Defendant attorneys objected the prosecutor saying that he was contradicting himself when he was questioning students' linkage with terrorism and charging them with terrorism at the same time. (EKN)