‘Bureaus Raided, Although Attorneys Voluntarily Suggested to Give Deposition’
Click to read the article in Turkish
Attorneys Özlem Gümüştaş and Sezin Uçar who had their offices raided and were taken into custody in police operations carried out in the early morning hours today (October 19), were taken to İstanbul Security Department later.
There is a warrant to take attorneys Gülhan Kaya and a legal practitioner, both from the Law Office of the Oppressed, forcibly to testify.
Attorney of the detained lawyers, İlknur Alcan told bianet, that the attorneys had already submitted a request voluntarily to give their deposition to the Prosecutor's Office earlier. Yet the office ignored the request and the raids were carried out.
"They wanted to give deposition voluntarily"
"The Prosecutor's Office did not respond to the request they submitted, to give their deposition as a part of the ongoing investigation.
"Yet their bureaus were raided today".
Alcan and some other attorneys went to the Security Directorate to see the detained lawyers today.
Two journalists detained, their offices messed up
In the operation carried out at around 2 a.m. today, 16 people were taken into custody and 20 houses were raided.
Etkin News Agency (ETHA) employees İsminaz Temel and Havva Cuştan are also among the detainees.
ETHA employee Pınar Gayıp, shared on Twitter, how the office looked like after the raid.
Ajansımızın evini bazan özel harekat kitaplardan nefretini böyle çıkardı. ETHA muhabiri Havva Cuştan gözaltına alındı. pic.twitter.com/oBTUTWZ2GN
— Pınar Gayıp (@pinargayip) 19 Ekim 2017
HDP: Psychological and physical tortures during the raids
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Central Executive Board has stated that the operation was a "new wave of detentions against the members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP).
"We have been informed that there is a detention order for over 20 people besides the ESP Central Executive Board member Özgen Sadet, ESP Deputy Chair attorney Özlem Gümüştaş and ESP Socialist Women's Assemblies Central Executive Board member attorney Sezin Uçar.
"Many houses have been raided, these have been messed up during these raids that were carried out by police and with the participation of special operation squads.
Stating that these people were made to stand for hours facing the wall and were threatened with death, the board pointed to both physical and psychological tortures the detainees were exposed to.
"ESP attorneys Sezin Uçar and Özlem Gümüştaş reminded that an authority from the bar association as well as a prosecutor had to be present during the detention yet the police did not comply with this regulation though explicitly requested".
HDP also noted that the operation violated international and democratic law regulations, it was against national and international agreements and was political. The party demanded that the detainees be immediately released. (AS/DG)