Attack on Saturday Mothers/People was ‘proportional’, according to Ministry
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In its answer to the Constitutional Court regarding the application of Aydın Aydoğan, the Human Rights Department of the Justice Ministry has argued that the intervention against him was on righteous grounds, it was a proportional intervention and did not exceed the minimum threshold.
Aydoğan was battered during the police attack at the 700th gathering of the Saturday Mothers/People, who had been staging silent sit-in protests for their relatives disappeared in police custody. Since the police intervention in the 700th week on August 25, 2018, they have been prevented from gathering in Galatasaray Square in Beyoğlu, İstanbul.
CLICK - Lawsuit against Saturday People over their 700th gathering
A lawsuit has been filed against 46 people who were detained during the police attack targeting the 700th gathering of Saturday Mothers/ People. Charged with "unarmed participation in unlawful demonstrations and marches and refusal to disperse despite warning," they now face a possible sentence for violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations.
The only evidence cited in the indictment is the report written by the police on the day and place of the incident and a document of inquiry.
Signed by Prosecutor Fatih Dönmez, the seven-page indictment names the defendants in five pages while the other two pages are allocated to the police report and the allegations of the prosecutor each.
CLICK - Police Attack Saturday Mothers with Plastic Bullet
Demonstration was allegedly not 'lawful'
As reported by Yeni Yaşam newspaper, the Constitutional Court, examining the application of Aydoğan, who had his arm broken during the attack, requested the opinion of the Justice Ministry regarding the issue.
The Human Rights Department of the Justice Ministry has sent an affirmative opinion as to the police intervention. In its opinion dated December 8, 2020, the Ministry has said that in order for an investigation to be launched into the allegations of ill treatment, the allegations of torture and ill treatment must be supported with suitable evidence.
The Ministry has further argued that as no permission had been taken, the protest of Saturday Mothers/People was not lawful:
"As such, the protest demonstration in the concrete case is unlawful and the law enforcement officers intervened into this unlawful demonstration in a way that complied with the law.
"On the day of the incident, several warnings were made with loud warning devices for 30 minutes, urging the group to disperse. As no positive response was received from the group who ignored the warnings and continued protesting, a physical intervention was made for a limited time span."
The opinion of the Human Rights Department has claimed that the intervention against Aydın Aydoğan was on righteous grounds, it was a proportional intervention and did not exceed the minimum threshold.
Speaking to daily Yeni Yaşam, Aydoğan has said, "I had my one arm broken and a surgical wound on the other. There were numerous plastic bullet marks on my back. Even though there is video footage and we submitted the actual videos, the prosecutor's office did take no action."
What happened?It was 25 years ago on May 27, 1995 that Saturday Mothers/People gathered for the first time at Galatasaray Square for the ones disappeared in custody. The first sit-in protests started after the deceased body of Hasan Ocak, who was taken into custody on March 21, 1995, was found in the Cemetery of the Nameless after being tortured. The Saturday protests at Galatasaray Square were interrupted for an indefinite period of time on March 13, 1999 due to heavy police intervention for the last three years. The interruption continued for the next 10 years. The silent sit-in protests of Saturday Mothers/People, which they started again at Galatasaray Square in 2009, continued until the police intervention in August 2018. In the 700th sit-in on August 25, 2018, the police attacked the crowd with rubber bullets, detaining several relatives of the disappeared. The detained were released after giving their statements on the same day. Speaking about the incident, Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Chair Gülseren Yoleri said that the 700th week gathering was "arbitrarily banned with a decision signed by the Beyoğlu Sub-Governor within the knowledge of Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. Detained in the 700th week, Maside Ocak said, "In 1997, we used to be detained as two generations; today, we were detained as three." Maside Ocak, the elder sister of Hasan Ocak, whose dead body was found in a common grave after he was detained on March 21, 1995, said that her 82-year-old mother Emine Ocak was attempted to be detained as well, she was not taken to the police bus at the last minute, she was pushed with police shields and her arms were bruised. According to the data of the Truth Justice Memory Center, 1,352 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance in Turkey. |
(AS/SD)