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“Ebru Timtik is immortal,” shouted the crowd gathered in front of the Istanbul Council of Forensic Medicine on Friday to witness the release of the coffin of the lawyer who paid with her life for her request for a fair trial. Tear gas fired immediately by the police did not help alleviate the climate in Turkey after the Fourth fasting death of defendants in DHKP-C membership trial, a group that has carried out several attacks and is described by Ankara and its Western allies as a “terrorist”.
Like Helin Bölek and Ibrahim Gökçek, the two musicians from the band Grup Yorum who passed away last spring, Ebru, 42, also pleaded not guilty and to prove it he had founded one. “Hunger to death strike” after she was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “belonging to a criminal organization.” 238 days ago Timtik he consumed only sugar water, herbal teas and vitamins, at the time of his death on Thursday, he weighed 30 kg. He did not eat because he wanted a fair trial, a protest also joined by his colleague Aytac Unsal. Both were part of the Contemporary Lawyers Association, a far-left group specialized in defending politically sensitive cases.
Not get out of prison
Her health had deteriorated so badly in recent weeks that she was introduced a release request, accompanied by a medical report, rejected last month by an Istanbul court and then, in August, by the Constitutional Court. Instead, the two lawyers were transferred to two different hospitals. Unsal is also in serious condition. His law firm broke the news of his death. “Ebru Timtik, partner of our firm, died as a martyr,” read a tweet on Friday night.
Reactions to the lawyer’s death they were immediately numerous at home and abroad. Hundreds of people gathered to pay tribute to her in the Gazi cemetery where she was buried, but many also wanted to greet her in front of the Istanbul forum: “This death is a disgrace for the history of Turkish justice,” the association declared. megacity lawyers in a statement. The sit-in was severely repressed by police officers in riot gear who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at those present. Lawyers complain of unfair or impartial trials: judges who are replaced if they speak for their release, verdicts announced before the defense has been able to speak.
The opposition reaction also endures. “Ebru Timtik was put to death before our eyes,” CHP MP Sezgin Tanrikulu tweeted., the secularist party that opposes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We have lost it because of a blind conscience of justice and politics. His only wish was to have a fair and honest trial, “he added.
The condemnation of the EU
The death also affected the European Union. “We are deeply saddened by the death of Ebru Timtik, who went on a hunger strike to have a fair trial. This tragic outcome painfully illustrates the urgent need for the Turkish authorities to credibly address the situation in the country with regard to human rights and the serious deficiencies observed in the judicial system “ European Commission Foreign Affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said during an online press conference in Brussels. “A strong and independent defense and a panel of independent judges – added Stano – are a key principle of a fair judicial system, which respects the rule of law and protects human rights in the country ”.
Forensic associations in the world
In many parts of the world, bar associations wanted to show their solidarity with Timtik’s family, but also with all Turkish colleagues forced to work under prohibitive conditions. In Italy, the National Council of Lawyers, in a note, affirmed that “it will continue, in synergy with the Council of European Bar Associations (Ccbe) and with the International Observatory of Lawyers in Danger (Oiad), its action to denounce and support to colleagues who fight for the free exercise of the legal profession, also compromised by the recent reform of professional associations in Turkey, and calls on the Turkish authorities to respect the rights of defense, inhibited and repeatedly violated in trials in those who participated companions. “.
The symbol process
Among the cases he treated Ebru Timtik is Berkin Elvan’s, a teenage girl who died in 2014 from injuries sustained during anti-government protests in Gezi Park in 2013. Arrested in September 2018, sentenced in 2019 to 13 years and 6 months in prison and held in Silivri prison, near Istanbul.
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Timtik is the fourth person to die this year after a mortal fast. On April 3, Helin Bölek, soloist of Grup Yorum, passed away after 288 days without eating. On May 7, the band’s bassist Ibrahim Gökçek followed after an 11-month hunger strike. On April 24, activist Mustafa Koçak suffered the same fate, who had not eaten for 296 days.
August 28, 2020 (change August 28, 2020 | 20:10)
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