Gülmen, Özakça Detained on Hunger Strike Now Arrested

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Academic Nuriye Gülmen and teacher Semih Özakça who have been on a hunger strike for 77 days and were taken into custody in a police raid, have been arrested.

Gülmen and Özakça were taken into custody on May 22 by police raiding their houses and were referred to court yesterday (May 23) evening for arrest after testifying before the prosecutor's office.

Their attorney Selçuk Kozağaçlı announced on Twitter that Gülmen and Özakça were arrested and he shared also the reasoned decision of the court.

The reasoned decision states that a lawsuit had been brought against Gülmen and Özakça on May 2, 2017 under Article 100/3-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

According to the decision, the reason for their arrest is that "they would disturb the functioning of the justice system in case they were not arrested and probationary measures would be insufficient when taken into account prescribed time to be served for the respective crimes". (HK/DG)