Lawyers protest for Aysel Tuğluk in Istanbul’s Palace of Justice

In Istanbul, lawyers held a protest at the Palace of Justice in Çağlayan to draw attention to the imprisoned Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk and demand her immediate release. The former HDP MP continues to be held hostage in the Kandira detention centre despite suffering from severe dementia.

The protest began with five minutes of silence in the Palace of Justice, after which the lawyers left the building with loud clapping to make a statement in front of the door. Most of the participants were members of the Libertarian Lawyers’ Association (ÖHD). The president of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, and the president of the Turkish Bar Association, Gürkan Altan, also took part in the action.

In a speech, lawyer Mebuse Tekay criticised the lack of commitment of the Istanbul Bar Association, of which Aysel Tuğluk is still a member. Aysel Tuğluk herself worked as a lawyer before her political career and defended Abdullah Öcalan, among others. Tekay stated that millions of people stand behind Aysel Tuğluk and that the Istanbul Bar Association ignores the case. She continued, “If we lived in a constitutional state, Aysel Tuğluk would have been released long ago. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the lifting of the HDP MPs’ parliamentary immunity is unlawful. However, because we are not a state under the rule of law, the rulings are not implemented.”

Şebnem Korur Fincancı said in a speech: “Twenty years ago, the death penalty was abolished by law. In practice, today it is carried out in instalments by ignoring the condition of seriously ill prisoners.” Aysel Tuğluk is unfit to be imprisoned and her release is being prevented by the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK), the scientist and doctor explained. In mid-February, the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Istanbul, which is subordinate to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, had again determined in a follow-up expert opinion that Aysel Tuğluk was fit to be detained and to be sentenced. Fincancı described the report as unscientific.

About Aysel Tuğluk

Aysel Tuğluk is a lawyer, former member of parliament and was deputy chairperson of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) until her arrest at the end of 2016. She has already been convicted in several cases, other trials are still pending. In February 2020, the Turkish Court of Appeal confirmed Tuğluk’s highest prison sentence to date, of ten years’ imprisonment. She was convicted of “directing a terrorist organisation” due to her role as co-chair of the grassroots alliance “Democratic Society Congress” (DTK). In October last year, a court in Van imposed a twenty-month prison sentence for alleged PKK propaganda in 2012 and 2013. In the so-called Kobanê trial in Ankara, Aysel Tuğluk faces an aggravated life sentence.