Mustafa Koçak Dies on 297th Day of Death Fast

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Mustafa Koçak died on the 297th day of his death fast, which he began "for a fair trial."

"My Name is Mustafa Koçak, I'm 28 years old. I lived with my family in Esenyurt, Istanbul until my arrest. As one of the four children of a poor family, I spent my childhood and youth working in various jobs, from apprenticeship to mobile breakfast clerk, in order to contribute to my family. My life changed when I was detained on September 23, 2017," he had told bianet in a letter.

Koçak was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for "violation of the Constitution" based on witness statements and started a hunger strike for his right to a fair trial. Later on, he turned the hunger strike into a death fast.

His case is currently at the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had requested the approval of the sentence.

Death fasts continue

"Mustafa was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment based on the statements of two slanderers who made false statements in order to avoid torture and punishment," his attorney Ayşegül Çağatay said today (April 24).

"Against this verdict, which was given as a result of a trial process full of torture and unlawfulness, he turned his hunger strike resistance into a death fast.

"Although his health was not suitable to stay in prison conditions and he was subjected to forced intervention torture for five days, the Court of Cassation, not urgently giving a verdict, kept the file pending. They watched Mustafa walking to death day by day.

"We lost Mustafa but death fasts still continue today; attorneys Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal have been on a death fast for 113 and 82 days, Grup Yorum [music band] member İbrahim Gökçek for 312 days, Didem Akman and Özgür Karakaya on 62 days. Days are moving terribly fast, the resisting ones are running out of time."

"Forced intervention is not the solution"

Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the chair of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, which had also prepared a report regarding the medical condition of Koçak, said that the government is responsible for the death.

"Fair trial, to be able to stage a concert... How simple demands... The political will, which ignores even these simple demands, is responsible for these deaths. States have an obligation to protect the right to an honorable and humanly life, and the state has violated this obligation," she said in a tweet.

She also said forced intervention and it should be understood why those people resorted to death fast.

What happened?

Mustafa Koçak wrote these about the 12 days he spent in custody in his letter to his lawyer:

"I was detained in the middle of the street in Mecidiyeköy and taken to the İstanbul Police Department on Vatan Street. Here they put a statement in front of me, "Give your statement in line with this and get out." "Otherwise we will arrest you and you'll never see the light of day again." They said, 'You help us, we help you, you live comfortably.'

"I was subjected to psychological and physical torture for not accepting it. The beating they sustained incessantly was the most 'innocent' thing they did. They hanged me by my arms while I was handcuffed from the back, took off my clothes, put a sack over my head, and tin cans over it. They percussed tin cans on my head for dozens of minutes. They swore at me, my mother, my father and my sister. They have threatened to rape my pregnant sister. These tortures lasted 12 days, I was arrested on October 4, 2017."

He was charged with providing firearms to an illegal organization and was sentenced for violating the Constitution.

The court's decision stated the conclusion that he had committed the crime was "reached by conscientious conviction":

"...The conviction of conscience that the accused has committed the crime of 'using force and violence, attempting to abolish or replace the order prescribed by the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, or attempting to prevent the actual implementation of this order' has been reached as a result of the trial of our court."

The reason for the sentence is the statements by witnesses and anonymous witnesses, according to the decision.

Attorney Ezgi Çakır had said, "There is nothing wrong with the criminal examination of the weapon, the camera footage and the phone records in the case file, namely, all the objective evidence that could arouse suspicion on the defendants. There are no fingerprints, no phone records, no camera records."

"My elder brother said that after the forced intervention 40 days ago, he now cannot walk, there is a burning sensation on his body and he cannot touch it, his legs have swollen and he has blisters at the bottom of his feet," Koçak' sister Mine had told bianet.

"He is losing his teeth, he has lost a lot of weight. He has dropped to 29 kilograms. He hurts a lot, he cannot sleep because of pain, he said.

"The only precaution against the virus is pouring disinfectant on his hands and wearing a mask. But we don't know how much disinfectant they give him. Prison administration says that they take measures, but we cannot trust. Wardens come here from outside, they might have the virus.

"We know that it is a virus affecting the immune system. My brother weighs 29 kilos now, his immune system is really weak. If he catches the virus, it might lead to his death. He himself says, 'I don't have much time left'." (AS/VK)