Over 25 lawyers, all of them members of Lawyers for Freedom Association (Özgürlük için Hukukçular Derne?i – ÖHD), were judicially harassed in Turkey over the past two months due to their professional activities. The Observatory (FIDH-OMCT) denounces this clear attempt to prevent lawyers from performing their duties and defending human rights and calls on the authorities to guarantee their right to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals.
#Turkey: Over the past 2 months, a wave of arbitrary arrests, detentions & searches has been carried out against #humanrights lawyers from @ohd_istanbul
?We denounce this systematic criminalisation of #HRDs & call for the release of Gülhan Kaya!
?https://t.co/MElPRNiymV pic.twitter.com/fRGeWQCd3y— The Observatory (@OBS_defenders) July 21, 2023
In the early hours of April 25, 2023, as part of an operation involving 3500 police officers directed by the Diyarbak?r Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, a total of 191 people, including lawyers, artists and journalists, were detained across 21 cities in Turkey, the majority of them Kurdish cities. On the same day, the Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu published a video production on his Twitter account showing footages of police operations the dates of which are unknown, alongside a caption stating that those detained were “financing the terrorist organisation, acting as lawyers on behalf of the terrorist organisation and supplying members to the organisation”.
#Turquie #France ?
«Notre avocat Murat Çelik qui a subi de fortes violences de la part de la #police lors de sa détention a ainsi été conduit au poste de police La police qui ne reconnaît pas les décisions de la Cour constitutionnelle viole l'interdiction absolue de la #torture» https://t.co/0UkVBUN7k8— Rémi-Ange C ?? ????????????? (@RemiAngeC) July 9, 2023
As part of the operation, the prosecution issued detention orders against a total of 25 lawyers, all members of the ÖHD, an association which provides legal support to victims of human rights violations. The lawyers’ houses and offices, as well as the headquarters of ÖHD, were searched by the police. During the searches, procedural safeguards were violated. Particularly, the search orders did not contain any information about the alleged charges, and neither a bar association representative nor the prosecutor were present during the searches of the lawyers’ homes, as required under domestic law. In addition, a search was conducted in the ÖHD Headquarters and the Diyarbak?r Branch offices, even though the organisation is not under investigation and its premises are not used as a lawyers’ office. Some documents related to applications made by torture survivors for legal support were confiscated. Another lawyer’s computer and digital equipment used for his professional activities and containing case files of his clients, in addition to legal documents, were confiscated, despite objections by the lawyer and other lawyers present during the search, who were also removed from the office by the prosecutor. The documents were examined by the police and later returned to the lawyer on May 6, 2023.
The 17 lawyers detained following the raids were barred from meeting with their own lawyers for 24 hours, as per the Diyarbak?r 3 Peace Criminal Judgeship’s decision. Those detained and their lawyers were also prevented from reviewing the case file due to a confidentiality order on the investigation decided by the same Judgeship. Lawyers’ objections to both decisions were denied without any reason, leaving those detained not knowing what they were being charged with.
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https://dunyanews.tv/en/World/741269-EU-ready-to-re-engage-with-Turkey,-but-sets-conditions
Turkey: Wave of detentions and arrests against human rights lawyers
