Arrested Lawyer Behiç Aşçı: What Changed in 6 Hours?
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Lawyer Behiç Aşçı has sent a letter to bianet from the Silivri Prison, where he has been held, and evaluated their judicial process.
17 lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and People's Law Bureau (HHB) appeared before the judge on September 10, 2018 after being arrested for a year. A verdict of release was issued for all of them on September 14 and the lawyers were released from prison on September 15. However, the Prosecutor's Office objected to their release and the court issued an arrest warrant for 12 of the released lawyers.
The lawyers who have been arrested again are Selçuk Kozağaçlı, Behiç Aşçı, Aycan Çiçek Düzce, Ahmet Mandacı, Aytaç Ünsal, Naim Feyzullah Eminoğlu, Engin Gökoğlu and Buket Yılmaz.
CLICK - 5 Released Lawyers Arrested Again
The next hearing of 20 lawyers, 12 of whom are currently behind bars, will be held by İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court in Silivri Prison on December 3-7.
"Court changed its own verdict 6 hours later"
In his letter addressed to bianet, lawyer Behiç Aşçı, who has been arrested in Silivri Prison, has evaluated their process of arrest, release and re-arrest.
Emphasizing that the Prosecutor's Office objected to the verdict of release issued for them before they were released from prison, Aşçı has stated,
"While the objection to our release should be evaluated by an upper court, namely the İstanbul 1st Heavy Penal Court, as per the related provisions of criminal procedure, the objection of the court was evaluated by the 37th Heavy Penal Court, which heard our case.
"And, the court changed its verdict six hours after it had given a verdict of release for us and ruled that we shall be arrested again.
"We were taken into custody at 7.30 p.m. on September 15, 2018 on Saturday in front of the İstanbul Bar Association. We appeared in court and were arrested the day after on Sunday."
"They assembled the court at the weekend to arrest us"
Reminding that the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court is normally not on duty at the weekend, lawyer Behiç Aşçı has asked, "Who forced the court to assemble on Saturday and why?"
In his letter, Aşçı has also stated, "Though there was no change in the case file, how come did the judges, who had unanimously ruled for our release, gave a unanimous verdict or arrest for us six hours later?"
Regarding the judges who ruled for their re-arrest, Aşçı has said, "But, they could still not make amends; while the presiding judge was relegated to a penal court of first instance, another member of the court board was relegated to a commercial court." (AS/SD)