METU Pride Parade case ends in acquittal

* After the students detained during the Pride Parade were released. Yıldız Tar/Kaos GL

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Put on trial for joining the Pride Parade at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in the capital city of Ankara on May 10, 2019, 18 students and one academic had their seventh hearing at the Ankara 39th Penal Court of First Instance today (October 8).

As reported by Yıldız Tar from Kaos GL, several people from rights organizations, embassies and the press followed the hearing.

Representatives from Kaos GL, May 17, SPoD, GALADER, Red Umbrella, Boğaziçi LGBTI+, Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), Civil Rights Defenders, the embassies of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, the US, France, Denmark and Belgüum, the EU Turkey Delegation were among the audience of the hearing.

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ankara MP Filiz Kerestecioğlu, HDP İzmir MP Murat Çepni and Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP) İstanbul MP Ahmet Şık also followed the seventh hearing of the case today.

'Lawsuit itself is a violation of rights'

The hearing began with identity checks. LGBTI+ activists' lawyer Öykü Didem Aydın said that if there were any undercover police officers in the courtroom, an identity check should be done and the police officers should be taken out of the courtroom. The judge accepted the request.

Upon the request of the judge, the police officers in uniforms were taken out of the courtroom. Lawyer Aydın requested that the undercover police officers be removed from the courtroom as well. The judge asked, "I don't know if there are any", Aydın turned to the audience and repeated the question. After the police officers left the courtroom, lawyer Aydın started making defense.

Aydın briefly said, "We came here, thinking, 'Well, there will be acquittal.' We have been waiting for the trial to be concluded for two years. While filing a lawsuit against the Pride Parade, which is within fundamental rights and freedom, is a violation of rights, we want that not another violation of rights take place and this trial end in acquittal."

The lawyer then moved on to speak about the prosecutor's final opinion as to the accusations. As recalled by Aydın, the prosecutor demanded the acquittal of five students and penalization of 12 students and one academic on the grounds of "participating in unlawful protest marches and refusing to disperse despite several warnings and use of force."

Aydın reminded the court board that the Ankara 7th Administrative Court had found the demonstration ban unlawful: "We submitted this ruling to the file. Was the ruling of the Ankara 7th Administrative Court overlooked in the opinion as to the accusations of the prosecutor's office?"

'Police terrorized the campus'

Lawyer Aydın emphasized that the opinion as to the accusations was against the law and the rector usurped the title of the Governor by imposing a ban via email. The lawyer briefly added the following:

"It was the police officers who disturbed the public order and occupied the campus. While it was not the case that public order was disturbed by our clients, what is the reason for this opinion as to the accusations?

"That the law enforcement went there does not show that there was an open and imminent threat, but shows the law enforcement's ill intention regarding LGBTIQ+ rights. Law enforcement officers attacked the pride parade, which would be held in festivity, and terrorized the campus, so to speak."

Reminding the court of the evidence that they presented, Aydın said, "The police are quite openly seen to be saying, 'We are against your existence'."

Reading out her clients' defenses from the previous hearings one by one, Aydın requested their acquittal. Following her defense, the defendants said that they repeated their previous defense statements.

The court has ruled that all defendants shall be acquitted as the elements of the crime were not constituted. One person has been sentenced to pay a judicial fine; the announcement of the verdict has been deferred.

What happened?

Entering the campus of the METU upon the call of the university presidency in 2019, the police intervened in the 9th METU LGBTI+ Pride Parade with pepper gas and rubber bullets. Over 20 students and one academic were detained. They were released later in the night.

A lawsuit was filed against 18 students and one academic on the grounds that they joined the METU LGBTI+ Pride Parade on May 10, 2019. (EMK/SD)