Court rejects lawyers’ requests: Aysel Tuğluk shall make defense at court

* Image: HDP

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The court has handed down its interim ruling in the "Kobanî trial" over the October 6-8 incidents / protests in 2014 against 108 politicians, 22 arrested, including the former Co-Chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the former members of its Central Executive Board.

According to the ruling uploaded to the National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP), the Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court has unanimously ruled that 22 arrested politicians shall remain in prison.

The interim ruling has also referred to Kurdish politician and ill prisoner Aysel Tuğluk, who has been diagnosed with dementia and given a report by the Kocaeli University Hospital which has found that she is not in a state to stay in prison, but is still not released since the Forensic Medicine Institution has issued a report concluding that she can stay in prison.

Citing the latest report given by the Forensic Medicine Institution for Tuğluk, the court board has rejected her lawyers' requests.

In the related report, the Institution has said:

"No medical finding or document has been obtained to suggest that she had a mental defect of a nature or to the extent that it would affect her criminal liability in the period falling within the time frame of the crime..."

Accordingly, the forensic medical report has concluded that ill prisoner Aysel Tuğluk "has full criminal liability".

'No need for a new report'

Referring to the latest report, the court board has noted that "the related reports have been prepared by examining the documents pertaining to the defendant's health condition and by conducting the necessary tests by keeping her under observation". The local court has rejected the lawyers' request by saying that "even in the event of a mental disease, making defense is obligatory as per the above mentioned ruling of the Court of Cassation's General Assembly of Criminal Chambers and the Article 6 of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)".

The court board has also concluded that "there is no ground for having another report issued" and that "the court is not commissioned or authorized in the matter even though a request has been made for the treatment of the defendant." Rejecting the requests of the defendants' lawyers, the court has adjourned the trial until March 28, 29, 31 and April 1, 4, 5, 7, 8.

What happened?

On December 29, 2016, when she was the Vice Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk was arrested along with seven other politicians from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Democratic Society Congress (DTK).

The indictment filed against Tuğluk, who was the DTK Co-Chair till September 2014, brought her statements to the press as well as the funerals that she attended as criminal evidence against the politician.

On March 16, 2018, the Ankara 17th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Aysel Tuğluk to 8 years in prison as per the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) no. 3713. Increasing this prison term by half, the court then gave a 12-years prison sentence to the politician. Lastly, it has decreased this prison sentence by one sixth and ruled that she shall be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

As Aysel Tuğluk's appeal to the Ankara Regional Court of Justice was rejected, her file was sent to the Court of Cassation.

Her mother's funeral

Aysel Tuğluk's mother Hatun Tuğluk lost her life in 2017. Upon her last will, her deceased body was brought to the İncek Cemetery in Ankara. Aysel Tuğluk left prison by permission and her mother was laid to rest; shortly afterwards, a group of 5-6 people gathered to protest the funeral.

The ones who attended the funeral said that this number gradually increased and they tried to attack the grave.

As the attacks continued, the deceased body of Hatun Tuğluk had to be removed from the ground and laid to rest somewhere else. One of the people who attacked the funeral turned out to have a picture with Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu at the police station.

Health problems

Aysel Tuğluk's elder brother Alaattin Tuğluk said that his sister had a memory loss after their mother's passing:

My sister didn't look fine. She asks the same question 3-4 times. She doesn't remember some things. For instance, when she wants to ask about someone from the family, she says, 'Who was that, who?' They are close people, it is impossible for her to not know them. I am concerned that this will come to an irreversible point and that we will lose my sister... I want treatment before it is too late. Let another committee examine her and give a decision accordingly. She is given 1-2 medications now. It is not enough. She will go [to jail] after her treatment ends.

About Aysel Tuğluk

Politician.

She was the founding member and Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and elected Diyarbakır MP in 2007-2009. She became the Van MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in 2011-2015. She served as the Vice Co-Chair of the HDP responsible for Law and Human Rights.

Aysel Tuğluk was also a member of the Society and Law Studies Foundation Executive Board, a member of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the founder of the Patriotic Women's Association.

Born in Elazığ in 1965, she graduated from the Faculty of Law of İstanbul University and worked as a self-employed lawyer. (RT/SD)