Lawyer Deniz YILDIRIM who is Antalya branch chair of CHD – Progressive Lawyers Association and Ramazan GOKALP were detained yesterday, in the province of Antalya. Antalya Prosecutorial Office ordered 7-day detention -including one day incommunicado- for two lawyers.
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- Deniz Yıldırım
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- Ramazan Gokalp
CHD-PLA condemned the detention warrant against its two members with a written statement. In the statement CHD-PLA said “Only purpose of this detention wave .. is to annihilate the right to defense.”
The full statement as follows:
“ÇHD Antalya Branch President Av. Deniz Yıldırım and Av. Ramazan Gökalp was taken into custody by the police in Antalya this morning, under guise of an investigation initiated a year ago. Our branch president Av. Deniz Yıldırım has repeatedly applied to the Prosecutor because of this investigation, to give her statement and defense. Nevertheless, the fact that the detention warrant was issued for them stands as a concrete example of the absence of the rule of law in the country.
Only purpose of this detention wave that follows the patronizing request of Ministry of Justice regarding prohibition of lawyers who attend the political cases is to annihilate the right to defense.
The members of CHD are not alone. We’ll pursue this unfair detention procedure. We will be in the fields until our friends are freed, and we will never surrender to the Regime’s state of emergency violence. We are not going to give up fighting. We are not going to recuse of being lawyer of the oppressed people. Detention and arrests against human rights defenders should be ceased immediately.”
CHD – PLA HQ
There has been a relentless campaign of arrests which has targeted fellow lawyers across the country. In 77 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, lawyers have been detained and arrested on trumped-up charges as part of criminal investigations orchestrated by the political authorities and conducted by provincial public prosecutors. As of today, 522 lawyers have been arrested and 1315 lawyers are under prosecution.
The Turkish government has also targeted Turkish lawyers’ right to association. 34 different lawyers’ societies or associations have been shut down since the declaration of the state of emergency. Following their closing down by a government decree, all their assets have also been confiscated without compensation.
Categories: Unjust / Wrongful Convictions