Police Checks if Activist is Home at 2.30 in the Morning

Click to read the article in Turkish

Nazan Bozkurt and Mehmet Dersulu, two of the activists who carry out the "We want our job" protests on Yüksel Street, Ankara, have been sentenced to house arrest.

The sentence was appealed, Bozkurt told bianet that the police came to her home and ask "Are you at home?" before the court concludes the appeal against the verdict.

Ankara 1st Penal Court of Peace ruled for house arrest over "resisting the police to prevent them from performing their duty."

Bozkurt said, "The police attacked as before the protest. We were detained before the protest began. One of the cops made a complaint claiming that we insulted him. Two police officers testified at court. So, the house arrest was given. Our lawyer appealed the decision. The court refused our request to review the surveillance tapes, did not listen to our witnesses."

Bozkurt said that at around 02.30 this morning, the police came to his door and asked, "Are you at home?" "There are no electronic handcuffs yet," she added.

"The police beat us"

Dersulu and Bozkurt stated that they do not accept the punishment because they will not wear electronic handcuffs.

Bozkurt also said that on the day the police filed a complaint against them, they had been beaten and that he had filed a complaint against them with the report he received from the hospital. The investigation is ongoing.

Bozkurt, who worked as a civil servant at the Çankaya Population Directorate, has been involved in the "We want our job" protests on Yüksel Street after being dismissed upon a Statutory Decree dated on January 23, 2017.

In the last two years he was fined hundreds of times in accordance with the law of misdemeanors, Bozkurt said. "When the fines were canceled, they gave house arrest." (AS/VK)