As 2019 Judicial Year starts on 1st of September tomorrow in Turkey. The Arrested Lawyers Initiative published a new report named Mass Prosecution of Lawyers in Turkey. According to report, since 2016’s coup attempt, there has been a relentless… Read More ›
The judicial year starts on 1st of September every year in Turkey. The judicial recess which starts 20th of July ends on 1st of September. Since, 1 September, 2019 is Sunday, Judicial Year opening ceremony will take place on 2 September in… Read More ›
The @ArrestedLawyers Initiative published a factsheet on Turkey’s state of emergency dismissals. It includes the latest statistics on the Inquiry Commission’s work, criteria applied for the dismissals and the definition of the connection and cohesion made by Ankara Regional Appeal Court.
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative produced a new factsheet on Turkey’s Criminal Peace Judgeships.
Istanbul Regional Appeal Court has upheld the Istanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court’s judgment dated 20 March 2019 which condemned eighteen lawyers to a 159-year prison term in total. The lawyers who were sentenced to more than 5 years still have… Read More ›
For quite some time, there has been a growing resentment, amongst provincial bar association and the public in general, towards Metin Feyzioğlu who is president of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (UTBA) because of his negligence about the… Read More ›
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention opted that detention of Melike Göksan and Mehmet Fatih Göksan who were judges in the province of Adana (Turkey), was arbitrary and unlawful. Melike Göksan and Mehmet Fatih Göksan are married. They were… Read More ›
According to our survey there is a steady increase in the use of anti-terrorism law on individuals by public prosecutors. These statistics highlight that Turkish public prosecutors have filed 337.722 charges under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code within the last six-years.
In response to a parliamentary question of Mr Sezgin Tanrikulu, the Turkish Ministry of Justice announced the number of lawyers held in prison by years. According to the Ministry of Justice the number of lawyers remanded in pretrial detention by years as following: 354, 487, 169 and 143, respectively in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Turkish journalist Cevheri Guven reports that the most crucial evidence that might lead to the discovery of the perpetrator of the assassination of Tahir Elci was removed from the investigation file and spoliated in the Turkish Institution of Forensic Medicine. According to a bombshell news story published in Boldmedya spoliation of the evidence was carried out at the order of the President of the Institution of Forensic Medicine.
As of 5th September, 2019, the SDIF controls and manages 998 seized companies, and also the assets of 113 real persons. As announced on the web site of the SDIF, the total worth of the seized companies is 58.94 billion Turkish liras (appx. 10 Billion USD).
Hasta la fecha, más de 1500 abogados han sido procesados y 599 han sido arrestados. 321 abogados han sido condenados a 2022 años de prisión por pertenencia a una organización terrorista armada o por difundir propaganda terrorista.
The right to freedom of assembly and association has been severely restricted in Turkey under increasingly authoritarian regime of president Erdogan.
The İstanbul Governor’s Office has refused to allow an investigation into two police officers who, as bodyguards of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reportedly tortured a lawyer in İstanbul in April after complaints from the lawyer that the presidential motorcade was… Read More ›
Turkish bar associations are revolting against Government’s unlawful pressure on the judiciary and the legal profession as a whole. Over 50 bar associations representing 95% of all Turkish lawyers are slating the Court of Cassation over its decision to hold… Read More ›
Özgür Kaya, Erkan Irmak, Yasin Ugan and Salim Zeybek who had been missing since February 2019, unexpectedly turned out in police custody on 29th of July.
Despite Ankara Provincial Security Directorate (Police) claims that the persons in question were detained in front of Ankara Police HQ during a routine police control, experts who have been closely following their disappearance believe that the detention of the victims has been staged so as to disguise Turkish Intel’s involvement in their disappearence.
Ankara Regional Appeal court upheld the sentence given to Gulen’s lawyer, Nurullah Albayrak who is the member of the Ankara Bar Association.
Ankara Regional Appeal court, which had considered the appeal, last week upheld the two-year prison term given by the Ankara 9th Heavy Penal Court. In a separate case, life imprisonment is being sought for Albayrak for leading of an armed terrorist organization.
Since the coup attempt of 2016, 311 Turkish lawyers have been convicted to a total of 1967 years in prison under Turkey’s Anti-Terror Legislation.
A coalition consists of the Arrested Lawyers Initiative, the Open Dialogue Foundation and the Human Rights Defenders e.V. made a joint submission titled ‘ARBITRARY APPLICATION OF ANTI-TERRORISM LAWS AND CRIMINALIZATION OF USING AN I-MESSAGE APPLICATION (BYLOCK)‘ to the United Nations… Read More ›
International Coalition consists of Law Society of England & Wales, Bar Human Rights Committee, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales, Conseil National des Barreaux, European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World… Read More ›
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative made submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review for Turkey, The submission titled ‘Incarceration of Turkish Lawyers (2016-2019) | Unjust Arrests and Convictions’ covers mass arbitrary prosecution of lawyers, violation of Turkish lawyers’ the… Read More ›
On the third anniversary of 2016’s coup attempt, Celal Uzunkaya who is general director of the Turkey’s General Directorate of Security (National Police) admits that 540,000 individuals have been detained on grounds of their alleged cohesion or connection with the Gulen Movement / Structure which is outlawed by the Turkish Government after the coup attempt.
The @ArrestedLawyers Initiative published a factsheet titled Enforced Disappearances and Turkey. To download the factsheet as a pdf document click here.
Turkish Judiciary’s the highest ranking bureaucrat, Selahattin Menteş who is undersecretary of the Justice Minister and former chair of the Inquiry Commission for State of Emergency Measures has been appointed to the Turkish Constitutionalists Court.
Mr. Mentes is a controversial name because of his affiliation with extremist cleric Nurettin Yildiz and lunatic hate-speech giver Kadir Misirlioglu.
Another controversial aspect of this appointment is that Mr Mentes is the former chair of the Inquiry Commission for State of Emergency Measures. During his term he signed thousands of decisions dismissing appeals of those who were purged under Emergency Decrees. Mr Mentes, as a Constitutional Court judge, will now have authority to consider appeals lodged against his own decisions.
By today’s appointment, the number of the members of the Constitutional Court who have been appointed by Erdogan has increased to seven out 17.
Four lawyers work in People’s Law Office in Istanbul were detained with a police raid on 20 July 2019. Lawyers Aysegul Cagatay, Nadide Ozdemir, Görkem Agdede and Ebru Timtik who are the members of Istanbul Bar Association have been arrested… Read More ›
Words of the Turkish lawyer who was subjected to torture in Ankara:
‘They removed my clothes 2 times. The department manager said such things as if I would make him dishonor me with a baton.’
Trabzon High Penal Court sentenced four lawyers including the former president of Trabzon Bar Association under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code which stipulates membership to an armed organisation. Lawyers Orhan Ongoz, Hüseyin Yılmaz, Selman Bitiş, Mustafa Öngün who… Read More ›
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security guards detained and beat an Istanbul lawyer for insulting the president after questioning blocked traffic at the site of a wedding ceremony attended by Erdoğan, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported on Tuesday. The incident took place… Read More ›
Human Rights Watch published a comprehensive report on persecution of Turkish lawyers named ‘Lawyers on Trial’.
Statement on the occasion of the Lawyers Day in Turkey
According to the report, 1546 Turkish lawyers have been prosecuted and 599 lawyers have been arrested since 2016 July. And so far, 297 Turkish lawyers have been sentenced to 1879 years in prison by the first instance courts under article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code.
Ankara 22nd Heavy Penal Court sentences 22 lawyers to some 150 years in prison. Lawyers who were detained on 3rd and 26th of August 2016, were convicted under Article 314§2 of the Turkish Penal Code which criminalizes membership to an armed terrorist organization.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan secretly investigated the family members of lawyers who were perceived to be critical of the regime including their spouses and children. The targeting of family members of critical lawyers and human rights… Read More ›
Turkish Parliament Speaker’s recent undue interference in the appeal process is seen by many as the final nail in the Commission’s long diminishing respectability.
18 lawyers were sentenced to some 160 years in prison by Istanbul 37th Assize Court under Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code which stipulates the armed terrorist organization. So far, Turkey have sentenced 248 lawyers to 1603 years in prison.
Within its periodic review procedure, the UN Committee against Torture blasts Turkey over wide-spread torture, and institutional negligence on investigating torture incidents. The Committee addressed more than hundred questions to be answered by the Turkish Government. The Committee reiterated its request from… Read More ›
This is the translation of the article of lawyer Mr Levent Maziliguney published in Meridyenhaber. Please don’t say that there was no Internet in 1970 so Bylock could not be used. I know too that the internet was not invented yet in 1970…. Read More ›
The highest Portuguese and Irish judicial bodies have condemned Turkish Government over its ongoing rights violation against lawyers, judges and prosecutors, and urged all national and European institutions, within the judiciary, to suspend any initiatives or cooperation projects with the Turkish judicial system
Resolution on ineffectiveness of domestic legal remedies in Turkey The lack of visible improvements in freedom of the media in Turkey since the state of emergency was lifted on 18 July 2018 is of great concern. The mass arrests, detention… Read More ›
The Arrested Lawyers have produced GIFs for awareness raising campaign carried out on the occasion of Day of the Endangered Lawyers.
Avrupa Konseyi Bakanlar Komitesi 30 Ocak 2019’da Adli ve Idari Yargılamalarda Elektronik Delillere Dair Kilavuz Ilkeleri yayınladı. Onemli ilkeler ihtiva eden Kilavuz Ilkeleri Arrested Lawyers Initiative Turkce’ye tercüme etti.
24th of January is Day of the Endangered Lawyers. 2019 is dedicated to Turkish lawyers who have been subjected to a relentless crackdown. Our latest report has revealed that in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, 1,546 lawyers have… Read More ›
On the occasion of Day of the Endangered Lawyer 2019, the Arrested Lawyers Initiative has worked with two great artists, Mr Carlos Latuff and Mr Aseem Triverdi, to raise awareness on the plight of Turkish lawyers.
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative updated its new report entitled “Incarceration of Turkish Lawyers | Unjust Arrests and Convictions (2016-2018).”
According to the report, 1546 Turkish lawyers have been prosecuted and 594 lawyers have been arrested since 2016 July. And so far, 216 Turkish lawyers have been sentenced to 1361 years in prison by the first instance courts under article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code.
In the November, 15 Turkish lawyers have been convicted of terrorism related charges. According to data compiled by our initiative monitoring action in daily basis, 593 lawyers have been arrested since the July of 2016, moreover, 208 of those lawyers have been sentenced to long imprisonment, ranging from 2 to 14 years, with the charge of being member of an armed terrorist organisation.
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative published a new report entitled “Incarceration of Turkish Lawyers | Unjust Arrests and Convictions (2016-2018).”
According to the report, 1546 Turkish lawyers have been prosecuted and 593 lawyers have been arrested since 2016 July. And so far, 198 Turkish lawyers have been sentenced to long imprisonment by the first instance courts under article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code.
We, The Arrested Lawyers Initiative, sincerely congratulate your European Lawyers Day.
Lawyers are the sine qua non of rule of law and fair, independent, impartial judiciary and also the most important and effective safeguard against torture and ill-treatment. As of 25th October 2018, 590 lawyers have been arrested (since 15th July) & 1548 lawyers are under prosecution. So far, 196 lawyers were sentenced to long imprisonment. Some of the arrested lawyers were subjected torture and ill-treatment.
In the October, 15 Turkish lawyers have been convicted of terrorism related charges. According to data compiled by our initiative monitoring action in daily basis, 592 lawyers have been arrested since the July of 2016, moreover, 197 of those lawyers have been sentenced to long imprisonment, ranging from 2 to 14 years, with the charge of being member of an armed terrorist organisation.
Peace Criminal Judge Gorkem Bayraktutan, who has only two years of experience, argued that Mr Kavili’s motive is not performing the profession of defence but demonstrating his client and himself as victim by doing reverse psychology (ters psikoloji) and trying to vindicate in the case by doing so. Judge continued his decision as follows “suspect’s behaviors in question are newsworthy and causing public indignation’ and decided to arrest lawyer Mr. Kavili.
The Norwegian Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) published a report entitled ‘Working Conditions For Lawyers In Turkey.’
On the occasion of #HumanRightsDay, The Arrested Lawyers Initiative opened online photography exhibit (“Turkey Under the State of Emergency”) to raise awareness about human rights violation have been lived in Turkey.
Infringement of the freedom of expression of two lawyers found liable for criticising two judges while acting in their capacity as representatives. | Yargici elestiren ifadeler nedeniyle cezalandirilan iki avukatin ifade ozgurlugunun ihlal edildigine dair.
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative cosigned a statement initiated by the Lawyers for Lawyers expressing solidarity with our Dutch colleagues after Mr. Wiersum, a well-respected lawyer and deputy judge, was shot in broad daylight right outside his house in Amsterdam in the… Read More ›
We are sharing the WGAD’s opinions adopted regarding Turkey’s detention practices under the Emergency Regime
