Cansu Pişkin, İstanbul – 17 lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and People’s Law Bureau (HHB) took part in a five day hearing before judges from the İstanbul 37. High Criminal Court. All 17 lawyers were released from detention.
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, Zehra Özdemir and Ezgi Çakır were present at the hearing. Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Sera Kadıgil, former CHP MP Şenal Sarıhan and international observers from the Brussels and Belgium Bar monitored the hearing.
Alleged security concerns compelled the court to hold the final day of the hearing at Silivri Prison Campus. Over a hundred gendarme officers were present in the courtroom. As the defendants entered the courtroom they shouted slogans protesting fascism and authoritarianism.
Before defense statements were heard, the presiding judge (Kadri Alpar) noted that the National Judiciary Informatics System would be updated at 7pm and stated that "it would be better" if the defense statements were completed before then.
Hasan Fehmi Demir, a lawyer representing all the defendants, presented a fiery defense. He began by stating that “Evidence must be solid, scientific, rational and material, it must be gathered legally. Court must have the original evidence in hand, not copies of it. The evidence presented in the indictment violates all these rules” Demir went on to castigate the prosecution, noting that they had made additions to the case file by simply copying and pasting segments of a separate case file. "The prosecutor that prepared the indictment has added this whole file, because he does not have any evidence or documents to support his claims. He made this addition because he wants everyone to perceive the defendants as guilty by presenting 40 folders against them.”
He continued by explaining that "This indictment consists of separate documents from various other cases files. None of what is presented in the indictment constitutes evidence against my clients. All the defendants that got arrested and put into pre-trial detention for over a year, are lawyers. The court which ruled for the detention of my clients based its decision upon their 'escape risk'. There are separate proceedings regarding my clients, which have been going on for over 5 years. However none of them have tried to escape. I request their release."
The prosecutor then rose to submit his final opinion and requested “...the continuation of detention of each defendant, considering the nature and qualification of the offences charged against them, the solid evidence presented against them, their escape risk and the fact that judicial control will not be sufficient in their case.”
After a 90-minute recess, the court rejected the prosecution’s request and released all seventeen defendants from detention. The court imposed an overseas travel ban on Timtik and Yılmaz and ordered them to provide their signatures to the authorities every Monday. The hearing was adjourned until February 19 2019.
Updated: December 5 2018
