No release in Kobanî trial

* Photo: Serpil Kemalbay, Twitter

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The final session of the fifth hearing of the Kobanî case was held at the Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court yesterday (October 27).

In the trial over the "October 6-8, 2014 Kobanî protests" where 108 people are facing charges, the court has rejected all requests for release.

21 of the 108 politicians from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) facing aggravated life sentences, including its former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are currently behind bars.

The fifth hearing of the trial was held in seven sessions. The court board has announced its ruling and rejected the requests for taking the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling of rights violation and immediate release for Selahattin Demirtaş as a legal precedent.

The next hearing will be held on November 8.

'How could news be criminal evidence?'

Following the morning session of the hearing where Selahattin Demirtaş also presented his statement, Ayla Akat Ata's lawyer Çiğdem Kozan took the floor at the afternoon session. Kozan recalled that her client is facing charges over her activities at the Free Women's Congress (KJA).

Criticizing that the speeches held during the Resolution Process for the Kurdish question, which lasted from early 2013 to mid-2015, are now cited as criminal evidence in the case file, Kozan said, "As long as you consider what was said and done during the Resolution Process, we will keep on expressing this from here" and briefly added the following:

"An act of being a human shield is mentioned. But my client, as a person who served in the Resolution Process, acted in order to prevent conflicts as part of her responsibility. We once again say that none of these can be cited as criminal evidence and request their removal from the file.

"The only thing brought against the client as part of the October 6-8 accusations is that she mentioned and shared a tweet. It has already been clearly put forward by the ECtHR Grand Chamber ruling that this tweet does not constitute a crime and it falls within freedom of thought and expression. But your court looks determined to not implement the ECtHR ruling."

Lawyer Çiğdem Kozan also criticized that news reports published by the ANF have been added as criminal evidence to the case file. She asked, "How could news being reported by a news website be brought as a subject matter in a court case against the client?"

'This is an operational case'

Taking the floor afterwards, lawyer Kazım Bayraktar referred to the "Palace", the Presidential complex of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as follows:

Our requests bounce back from the walls of the Palace, but we will insistently keep making defense. We continue indicating how operational a case this case is. They bounce back from the walls of the Palace, but we will keep on making defense.

Lawyer Cihan Aydın also criticized the fact that several public institutions are cited as complaints in the trial:

"The Public Prosecutor ruled that 276 people should be involved in this case; in fact, this was executed in a police investigation report. Do you know why the Erciş or Pertek Municipality is involved in this case? You don't. We don't, either. Comply with the minimum legal procedures."

'Right to make defense hindered'

Cemile Turhallı Balsak, the lawyer of Sebahat Tuncel, Alp Altınörs and Ayşe Yağcı, took the floor and said that the court board was acting in a way to not let the defendants exercise their right to make defense:

"Tuncel has not yet made defense as to the accusations against herself because this is impossible. We are talking about a 3,530-page indictment. In reasonable conditions, it would take months to read this indictment. The number of folders in this trial has reached a thousand.

"The trial has been going on for six months. We are talking about a case which started with 325 folders and multiplied to 1,000."

Addressing the court board, the lawyer stated: "It is you who should first know that it is impossible to examine millions of pages of documents and who should hold the trial accordingly. Shouldn't you first be reading them? How could a two-week trial be held with a one-week recess in such a trial? Are there conditions for this? No fair trial can be held in this situation.

The period of hearings has turned into conditions of ill treatment. We demand the execution of a period of hearings that will not be considered an interference with the right to a fair trial.

Lawyer Şevin Kaya also said, "A one-week hearing period is unacceptable. There are still people who have not yet made their defense. There are politicians who have not examined the file. You are trying to end the trial as soon as possible upon the instructions given to you."

'Tuğluk should be released

Lawyer Serdar Çelebi, in his statement at the hearing, raised concerns about the health of Aysel Tuğluk, the former Vice Co-Chair of the HDP, who is currently arrested in the Kandıra Women's Closed Prison:

"The Forensic Medicine Institution process is still ongoing. She is not in a state to make defense in a healthy manner, let alone staying in prison. This is also a humanitarian and conscientious issue, apart from a technical one. [...] There is no concrete evidence that will necessitate penalization in the file. We request her release by considering these points."

From the Kobanî indictment

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment regarding the Kobanî protests that took place on October 6-8, 2014.

108 people, including the arrested former Co-Chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş, were among the "suspects".

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the indictment demanded the penalization of all suspects on charges of "disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state", "killing for 37 times, "attempted killing for 31 times", "burning the flag" and "violating the Law on Protecting Atatürk."

Prepared by the Terror Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the indictment was sent to the Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court. The court accepted the indictment on January 7, 2021.

Here are the names of all defendants: Figen Yüksekdağ, Sebahat Tuncel, Selahattin Demirtaş, Selma Irmak, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Gülfer Akkaya, Gülser Yıldırım, Gültan Kışanak, Ahmet Türk, Ali Ürküt, Alp Altınörs, Altan Tan, Ayhan Bilgen, Nazmi Gür, Ayla Akat Ata, Aysel Tuğluk, İbrahim Binici, Ayşe Yağcı, Nezir Çakan, Pervin Oduncu, Meryem Adıbelli, Mesut Bağcık, Bircan Yorulmaz, Bülent Barmaksız, Can Memiş, Cihan Erdal, Berfin Özgü Köse, Günay Kubilay, Dilek Yağlı, Emine Ayna, Emine Beyza Üstün, Mehmet Hatip Dicle, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Yurdusev Özsökmenler, Arife Köse, Ayfer Kordu, Aynur Aşan, Ayşe Tonğuç, Azime Yılmaz, Bayram Yılmaz, Bergüzar Dumlu, Cemil Bayık, Ceylan Bağrıyanık, Cihan Ekin, Demir Çelik, Duran Kalkan, Elif Yıldırım, Emine Tekas, Emine Temel, Emrullah Cin, Engin Karaaslan, Enver Güngör, Ercan Arslan, Fatma Şenpınar, Fehman Hüseyin, Ferhat Aksu, Filis Arslan, Filiz Duman, Gönül Tepe, Gülseren Törün, Gülten Alataş, Gülüşan Eksen, Gülüzar Tural, Güzel İmecik, Hacire Ateş, Hatice Altınışık, Hülya Oran, İsmail Özden, İsmail Şengül, Kamuran Yüksek, Layika Gültekin, Leyla Söğüt Aydeniz, Mahmut Dora, Mazhar Öztürk, Mazlum Tekdağ, Abdulselam Demirkıran, Mehmet Taş, Mehmet Tören, Menafi Bayazit, Mızgın Arı, Murat Karayılan, Mustafa Karasu, Muzaffer Ayata, Nazlı Taşpınar, Neşe Baltaş, Nihal Ay, Nuriye Kesbir, Remzi Kartal, Rıza Altun, Ruken Karagöz, Sabiha Onar, Sabri Ok, Salih Akdoğan, Salih Müslüm Muhammed, Salman Kurtulan, Sara Aktaş, Sibel Akdeniz, Şenay Oruç, Ünal Ahmet Çelen, Yahya Figan, Yasemin Becerekli, Yusuf Koyuncu, Yüksel Baran, Zeki Çelik, Zeynep Karaman, Zeynep Ölbeci, Zübeyir Aydar.

About Kobanî protests

Before the protests held to support Kobanî in northern Syria in 2014, those who were waiting in the district of Suruç, Urfa in southeastern Turkey and wanted to cross the border were intervened with pepper gas and rubber bullets. In the meantime, some pictures allegedly showing ISIS militia crossing the border of Turkey were published.

President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made statements indicating that they equated PKK with ISIS. While the wounded coming from Kobanî were kept waiting on the border, the wounded from ISIS were treated at hospitals. Several news reports were reported in the press, saying "Kobanî fell." These news reports were denied every time.

After the HDP made a call to take to the streets against a possible massacre in Kobanî, thousands of people protested in Kurdish-majority provinces as well as Ankara and İstanbul. While left parties also supported these protests, deaths also occurred with the onset of police violence. Street conflicts ensued. 42 people lost their lives from October 6 to 12, 2014.

According to a report by the Human Rights Association (İHD), 46 people died, 682 people were wounded and 323 people were arrested in the protests held between September 7 and 12, 2014. As reported by the AA, 31 people lost their lives, 221 citizens and 139 police officers were wounded.

(AS/SD)