Police intervention against people keeping watch for death fasting lawyers
* Photo: Zeynep Kuray
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
Police have intervened against the group keeping watch in front of the Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul.
Until today, at 3 p.m. everyday, a statement for the press was held for Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, two arrested lawyers who are on a death fast for their right to a fair trial and currently held in two separate hospitals in İstanbul. However, the police intervened into today's statement.
Journalist Zeynep Kuray reports that several people have been taken into custody during the intervention of the police.
Ölüm orucundaki avukatlar için Bakırköy Sadi Konuk Hastanesi önünde tutulan nöbete polis saldırdı çok sayıda gözaltı var pic.twitter.com/fFAAJfN76T
— Zeynep Kuray (@zeynokuray) August 24, 2020
What happened?
On a death fast in prison for their right to a fair trial, arrested lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal were not released despite a Forensic Medical report indicating that "they were not in a state to stay in prison." Shortly afterwards, they were taken to two separate hospitals on July 30.
An objection was lodged against the ruling of the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court, which ruled that death-fasting lawyers should remain behind bars.
However, the court rejected this objection, saying: "Considering that the ruling of continued arrest given for defendant Ebru Timtik and defendant Aytaç Ünsal on July 30, 2020 is in compliance with due process and the law, there is nothing to rectify in the ruling, the objection has been rejected..."
The objection to the rejection has been rejected as well.
An application was made to the Constitutional Court for arrested lawyers Timtik and Ünsal on August 10, 2020.
The application to the supreme court noted that "while they should have been released based on the reports prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institution, they were unjustly and unlawfully arrested and their health conditions were deteriorating in hospital conditions where they were held."
Within this context, the attorneys of Ünsal and Timtik requested that the Constitutional Court write an official letter to the local court, ordering the release of arrested lawyers as a precaution.
Rejecting death fasting lawyers' request for release, the Constitutional Court neither examined the medical reports nor their statements on not being treated at hospital. "There is no serious danger posed to their material or immaterial integrity," it has concluded.
On a death fast for 235 days as of today (August 24), Ebru Timtik is currently held in Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul. On a death fast for 202 days, Aytaç Ünsal is in Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital, which is also in İstanbul.
Both hospitals are pandemic hospitals. (AS/SD)