Press Release: Lawyers Detained in Turkey Urgent Action Request from all Human Rights Defenders

11^th September 2020

President of the European Court of Human Rights Spano visited Turkey in the first days of September. Human Rights Defenders have a great expectation from this visit; unfortunately, it was a great disappointment. Few days after his visit, 11 September 2020, Forty-eight lawyers, seven intern lawyers, four dismissed judges, and one law school graduate are arrested based on which clients they represent.¹

 

The report, which is published by Arrested Lawyers Initiative in August 2020, stated that;

 

“According to the latest version of the report, since 2016’s coup attempt, more than 1500 lawyers have been prosecuted and 605 lawyers arrested (remanded to pretrial detention). So far, 441 lawyers have been sentenced to a total of 2728 years in prison on the grounds of membership of an armed terrorist organization or of spreading terrorist propaganda.”²

 

Following statement said by Turkish President Erdogan on his speech during the opening new legal year for 2020.

 

“If people who work in other institutions can be dismissed from their profession for supporting terrorism, I think the possible necessity of such a move for the lawyers should also be discussed,”³

 

With his speech openly, Erdogan targeted the Lawyers who are defending the oppositions. Only a week after President Erdogan’s speech, 60 Lawyers were arrested.

 

Lawyers are the only legal people who can defend the people who are facing Human Rights Violations. In today’s Turkey, it is not easy for a jailed opposition to get a lawyer who will protect their fundamental Human rights. The persecution of lawyers facilitates torture and ill-treatment of detained persons and prevent them from asking that their fundamental human rights are respected.

 

Please do not remain silent against this unlawfulness.

 

We are requesting urgent action from all Human Rights Defenders and Organizations to take appropriate steps against the Turkish Government’s unlawfulness.

 

Signed by

Broken Chalk

Download Press Release Lawyers Detained in Turkey  as a PDF file 

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¹https://ahvalnews.com/arrested-lawyers/ankara-prosecutor-orders-arrest-60-legal-professionals-gulen-investigation

²https://arrestedlawyers.org/2020/07/30/report-update-mass-prosecution-of-lawyers-in-turkey-2016-2020-2/

³https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/focus-on-judicial-reforms-as-legal-year-begins-in-turkey/news