Court acquits women put on trial for attending Women's Day march

The trial related to the incident where 40 women were allegedly detained and subjected to police violence during a march organized by the Antalya Women's Platform on March 8, 2022, International Women's Day, took place at the 8th Criminal Court of First Instance in Antalya.

During the trial, some of the women on trial and their lawyers were present. The prosecutor, presenting the indictment, requested that the defendants be tried.

"I exercised my constitutional right"

"I exercised my constitutional right," said the defendant Evin Tanrıverdi in her defense:

"I wanted to participate in this march within the scope of my constitutional right. I have not engaged in any behavior that constitutes a crime. I was detained by the police in a harsh manner. However, I did not experience any negative conditions during the medical examination. I do not accept the accusations against me. I request an acquittal."

"The expert report mentions concealed police violence"

Lawyer Aylin Onursev also stated:

"Feminist night march celebrations have been held traditionally in Antalya since 2013. As of the date of the incident, this was the 9th march, and in all the previous marches, no violent incidents had occurred."

"On the day of the incident, a harsh intervention and reaction were shown in a manner that contradicts the essence of the right against people who had come together for a peaceful purpose, wanting to have a walk that would last a maximum of 15 minutes."

"On the day of the incident, the law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene were directly against the idea of holding this march and intervened to prevent it. However, as we have stated, since this celebration, which has been traditionally held, is not covered by Law No. 2911, neither our clients nor other defendants have committed any actions that constitute a crime."

"On the contrary, there are practices by the law enforcement that apply disproportionate force. The expert report also mentioned interruptions that concealed the police intervention. For example, when a reaction was shown against the unlawful intervention by the police at the scene, this matter was not included in the video footage, and the direction of the camera footage was changed to hide the intervention. Despite all these issues, the expert report did not address this matter but made a subjective evaluation."

"On page 12 of the expert report, it is clearly seen that the group disperses at the end of the camera footage and walks toward the Attalos statue through the back streets. No action was taken against the people who participated in this walk, and it is evident that these people did not engage in any actions that were against the peaceful purpose, violent, obstructing public order. All previous walks have been conducted in the same manner. For these reasons, we fully support the requests of my colleagues to file a criminal complaint against the expert."

"We request an acquittal for all my clients and defendants. Furthermore, considering the AİHM jurisprudence in the case of Arfat Türkiye Aşıcı, it is emphasized that even the filing of a lawsuit against individuals who participated in peaceful demonstrations is a violation of Article 11 of the ECHR. In light of this, we request that a decision of acquittal be rendered for my clients."

Contrary to the prosecutor's opinion, the court ruled for the acquittal of all 40 people. (EMK/VK)