MURAT KÖK*
Another lawsuit has been filed against Saturday Mothers/People who wanted to make a press statement at the Altınşehir Cemetery of the Unnamed on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances but were detained without being allowed to disperse. Saturday Mothers/People have been charged with “attending illegal meetings and marches and failing to disperse despite warning.” On 30 August 2022 which marks the UN recognized International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Saturday Mothers/People wanted to make a press statement at the Altınşehir Cemetery of the Unnamed where the bodies of Hasan Ocak and Rıdvan Karakoç who were tortured to death in police custody, were found.
Photo: Evrensel
The police, who had blockaded the neighborhood where the cemetery is located, did not allow the group consisting of the families of the forcibly disappeared and human rights defenders to enter the cemetery and had trapped the group within a so-called “security perimeter.” Although the families of the forcibly disappeared had communicated that they would disperse, the police did not let the families and human rights defenders out of the “security perimeter” and started issuing warnings for them to disperse. Soon after the warnings, the police had detained 14 people. The families and human rights defenders were held in police custody for almost 10 hours in total as the prosecutor who ordered them to be released decided to have them taken back into custody.
