Police Raid People's Law Bureau

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The police raided the People's Law Bureau (HHB) office in Şişli, İstanbul early in the morning today (June 20).

Attorneys Ayşegül Çağatay, Nadide Özdemir, Görkem Ağdede and Ebru Timtik, Gülser Sarıgül, the secretary of the bureau, Özhan Aslan, a sibling of one of the attorneys, and Kamile Kayır, a client, has been detained, the HHB announced.

This was the fourth raid into the office in the last two years, it added.

The Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) also released a statement after the raid, saying, "We call all of our colleagues to the İstanbul Directorate of Security at 2 p.m. to show solidarity with the detained lawyers."

Eighteen lawyers from the HHB and the ÇHD were given prison terms between 3 years and 1 month and 18 years and 9 months.

CLICK - 18 Lawyers Sentenced to Prison for 159 Years, 1 Month, 30 Days in Total

What happened?

Most of the lawyers, who are members of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and People's Law Bureau (HHB), were taken into custody in police raids against their bureaus on September 12, 2017, and arrested on September 20. Chair of the ÇHD Selçuk Kozağaçlı was arrested on November 13, 2017

At their hearing on September 14, 2018, the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court ruled for the release of the lawyers Ahmet Mandacı, Aycan Çiçek, Ayşegül Çağatay, Aytaç Ünsal, Barkın Timtik, Behiç Aşçı, Didem Baydar Ünsal, Ebru Timtik, Engin Gökoğlu, Naciye Demir, Özgür Yılmaz, Selçuk Kozağaçlı, Süleyman Gökten, Şükriye Erden, Yağmur Ererken, Yaprak Türkmen and Zehra Özdemir.

However, less than 24 hours after a verdict of release was given for them, the board of the court was changed and, in the meanwhile, the Prosecutor's Office objected to the verdict.

The new court board ruled that six of the released lawyers should be arrested again. After spending one day outside prison, six released lawyers were re-arrested and sent to prisons in different provinces of Turkey. The arrest warrants issued against lawyers Günay Dağ and Oya Aslan have still been in effect.

One of the defendants, Barkın Timtik, was also arrested on March 1.

The prosecutor of the court announced his opinion as to the accusations on February 21, 2019, and demanded that all defendants be penalized on charge of "membership of an armed terrorist organization."

In the final hearing of the case held on March 20, 2019, the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court ruled that 18 lawyers shall be sentenced to 159 years, 1 months and 30 days in prison in total.

(AS/VK)