Arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal to Süleyman Soylu: Take pride

* Photo: Emre Orman

Click to read the article in Turkish

Jailed lawyer Aytaç Ünsal has sent a letter to bianet, touching upon the statements of Sedat Peker about Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

Currently abroad, mafia boss Peker has been posting some videos on YouTube regarding the 'state-mafia' relations in Turkey, targeting especially Minister of Interior Soylu and former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar.

Referring to these recent developments in his letter, Aytaç Ünsal, who is convicted in the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) case, has written that he and the other defendants of the ÇHD case were convicted based on the statements of informants, but they still stood behind all of their actions at court and defended them at the hearings.

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'Can you come forward and defend what you did?'

Arrested while he was still recovering from his death fast and with his treatment interrupted due to his imprisonment, Ünsal has briefly written:

"Mr. Soylu, I am watching your 'sad story'. Don't think that the successively posted videos come to my mind, we don't care about those videos. We don't need to hear the truths that we have been telling for years from Sedat Peker. It is the medal of your order that he has reached this point and is treated as the 'spokesperson of the main opposition'; take pride!

"You detained and arrested [people] with the 'informants' that you created. You tortured [people] to make informants out of them.

"You organized conspiracies with the magic word 'counterterrorism'. We said it back then; we said that your political superior was Mehmet Ağar. You maintained the Susurluk state together.

"Like everyone who has nothing to do with history, science or ethics, you thought that history begins and ends with you. Now the end is in sight. And an informant is bringing about your downfall.

"With the statements of informants, you tried to turn it into a crime that we were the attorneys [of aggrieved families] in Soma [mine explosion case] and that we wanted justice for Berkin Elvan [who was shot to death by police with a tear gas canister during Gezi].

"From the first hearing on, we came forward and we defended what we did, we stood behind what we did. But what about you? Will you be able to come forward and defend what you did?"

Sharing some lyrics from a folk song, saying, "Let Anatolia answer", Ünsal has ended his letter, saying: "No way; no one will stay silent."

CLICK - Constitutional Court rejects Aytaç Ünsal's application

Going on a death fast for 215 days for a fair trial, lawyer Aytaç Ünsal was arrested on December 11, 2020, while he was still being treated for the health problems that arose due to his death fast and even though there had been a ruling of deferment of execution of his sentence.

What happened?

On a death fast for her right to a fair trial, arrested lawyer Ebru Timtik lost her life in the Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul on the 238th day of her death fast on August 27, 2020.

On September 4, arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal, who had also been on a death fast with the same demand, ended his death fast on the condition of being treated by independent physicians after the Court of Cassation released him on probation.

The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation handed down its judgement in the trial of Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and upheld all prison sentences, except for the ones given to lawyers Barkın Timtik, Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Ezgi Çakır.

The Chamber indicated that there was no ground to give a judgement about lawyer Ebru Timtik as she had lost her life on a death fast. The execution of lawyer Aytaç Ünsal's sentence will be deferred until his treatment ends.

On December 10, 2020, the Ministry of Interior announced that lawyer Aytaç Ünsal had been "caught with three migrant smugglers while trying to flee abroad from Edirne," a northwestern province of Turkey bordering Greece. Ünsal was detained by three others. He was arrested. (AS/SD)