Referred to court to be arrested, 30 students released

* Photo: Ahmet Şık / Twitter

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

After they were detained in front of the Rector's Office at the South Campus of Boğaziçi University on Monday evening (February 1), 30 students referred to court to be arrested have been released.

The court has also rejected the request of the prosecutor's office for placing 12 detained students under house arrest.

Judicial control measures have been imposed on the students; they will now have to give signatures at the police station once a week while an international travel ban has also been imposed on them.

After the detained students were referred to the prosecutor's office at the İstanbul Courthouse, 30 people were referred to the court with a request for their arrest, 12 people with a request for house arrest and nine students with a request for an international travel ban.

Nine people have been released with an international travel ban which will remain in force for a period of nine months.

In a statement released by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, it was previously said that 51 people had been detained on charges of "depriving the person of his freedom, damaging public property and violating the Law no. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations."

What happened?

As part of the protests against the appointment of Prof. Melih Bulu as the new rector of Boğaziçi University and against the arrest of two students over a picture on display in an exhibition at their campus, students protested in front of the South Campus in İstanbul on February 1. The protests continued in front of the Rector's Office later in the evening.

While the police detained 108 people during the day, they also stormed the campus and detained 51 others in front of the Rector's Office, which brought the total number of the detained to 159 people.

108 people were released after they gave their statements at the police station. Of the ones released a day before, 10 were taken into custody again and placed under house arrest by the court.

After another protest was held in Kadıköy on February 2 within this context, several people were also detained there. 22 of them are still held at the İstanbul Security Directorate on Vatan Avenue in Fatih.

Two students were arrested and two others were placed under house arrest on January 30 on the alleged ground that they "degraded or provoked the public to enmity or hatred" with a picture of the Kaaba with four LGBTI+ flags on its corners on display at an exhibition at the South Campus of the university as part of the ongoing protests against the appointed rector. (EKN/SD)