Objections to Audio, Visual Information System on Parliamentary Agenda

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Group Deputy Chairperson and Mersin MP of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Fatma Kurtulan has stated that the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS) "has been turned into forced interrogation" and brought the issue to parliamentary agenda.

Kurtulan has submitted a motion which foresees that the defendants who want to make their defence before the court rather than via SEGBİS be brought to the courtroom.

Referring to the SEGBİS, which was put into force on September 20, 2011, Kurtulan has stated that the system "has gradually turned into an arbitrary practice and been used in interrogations and testimonies that are not duly taken."

The motion submitted by Kurtulan has foreseen that "in case the defendant states that he or she demands to make defence before the court, interrogation shall be immediately ended and the defendant shall be brought to the hearing."

"SEGBİS is evolving into trial without defendants"

Speaking to bianet about the system, attorney Ezgi Çakır previously stated that "the trials via SEGBİS are held in the absence of defendants, which violated the defendants' right to a fair trial."

Referring to the rights of being face to face, appearing before the court and making defence in an unmediated way as "the main principles of a trial," Çakır has emphasized that "with the SEGBİS, all these rights are entrenched upon." (AS/SD)