Court merges Ayla Akat Ata’s case with Kobane Trial

The hearing of the case against Ayla Akat Ata, a former deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and one of the founders of the Rosa Women’s Association, was held at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court on Thursday. Akat, who is jailed in the Sincan Women’s Closed Prison, is accused of “being a member of a terrorist organization” and “making propaganda for a terrorist organization”.

Former lawmaker Ata attended the hearing from the prison via sound and video information system (SEGBİS). Her lawyers Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş and Gözde Engin were present in the courtroom.

The court board said that the Ankara 22nd High Criminal Court, which deals with the Kobane Trial, requested that Ata’s case be merged with that of the Kobane Trial.

Ata replied that the indictment notifying the merge request was submitted to her on September 8 and requested additional time for defence. Ata said that she did not request the merge of the cases, adding, “Such a thing is unacceptable.”

Ata’s lawyer, Elif Tirenç İpek Ulaş, pointed out that the ‘secret witness’ who the court had ordered to speak at the previous hearing was not present in the courtroom today. “The secret witness whose statement was taken by the public prosecutor does not have any wet-ink signature or evidence. Where does this secret witness come from? In the previous hearing, we demanded an investigation into this secret witness, yet the secret witness is not present in the courtroom.”

Lawyer Ulaş said that the witness did not speak and the evidence regarding the accusation has not been evaluated yet. Ulaş demanded that the request for merge should be rejected.

Despite the objections, the prosecutor and the court decided to merge the two files.