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Özgür Özel, who announced his candidacy for the Republican People's Party (CHP) leadership last Friday (September 15), visited Silivri Prison, where he met with Gezi protest detainees Can Atalay, Osman Kavala, Tayfun Kahraman, Ali Hakan Altınay, and journalist Merdan Yanardağ. He remarked, "Every minute they are held inside is being inscribed with dark marks on our annals of law."
Özel visited Silivri Prison yesterday (September 20th), where he met with those imprisoned for their involvement in the Gezi Park protests, despite violations of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the fact that Can Atalay has been elected as a member of parliament. He also visited journalist Merdan Yanardağ, who has been under investigation and detained recently for his statements.
Following the visit, Özel stated, "I hope to hug each one of them in freedom in the coming period. I want to emphasize that every minute they are held under bars is a source of great shame, and it stains the legal and political history of the Turkish Republic with dark marks. I hope they will be free soon."
"Kavala waits for a Constitutional Court ruling"
Özel also pointed out that Osman Kavala has been in detention for 2280 days, and despite the decision by the ECHR, the Constitutional Court has not yet made a ruling regarding him. He said, "He patiently and faithfully waits for this decision."
The former CHP Deputy Group Chairman added, "We are concerned about the health of our friends. While they are following this process with patience and fortitude, it is extremely distressing for their families, especially for their small children, to see how the Court of Cassation process is dragging on. Although they have been acquitted two or three times in some cases, it is truly impossible to accept that this process has been brought back to the judicial process in some way."
"We all expect justice in the Gezi trial. We want to see a real legal process. It is really impossible to accept that this process, which has ended in acquittal for some in the courtroom we followed before, has been somehow brought back into the judicial process, despite some of them being acquitted two or three times," he said.
"Yanardağ is a patriot and committed to objective journalism"
Özel also noted that journalist Merdan Yanardağ has been in detention for over three months now. He said, "We mentioned this on the day of his arrest. It is not possible to arrest someone with a cut-and-paste method. The whole of Turkey knows that such allegations won't stick to Merdan Yanardağ. While there is no doubt about his patriotism and his consistent commitment to objective journalism in these matters, they are keeping him behind bars for an ironic evaluation he made, distorting it into something completely unfounded."
Yanardağ used expressions in his program on Tele1 channel, where he is the Editor-in-Chief, implying that the government will be in a new peace process and criticizing the isolation conditions of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan held in İmralı Prison, suggesting that he could contribute to this process with his political vision.
Regarding the question of whether the people he met with in prison support his candidacy for party leadership, Özel responded, "We have had very friendly interactions that befit the privacy of a prison environment, but it would not be correct for me to express this here given their situation. I hope they will be free soon, and they can answer this question themselves when they are released." (EMK/PE)
