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2.16 HRW report explores Turkey’s jailing of hundreds of lawyers in “major assault on right to fair trial”
Lawyers march in Istanbul in January on Day of the Endangered Lawyer. The banner reads: “To silence the lawyer’s voice is to deprive the citizen of breath.”
Turkey has arbitrarily jailed hundreds of lawyers and put them on trial in the aftermath of the failed military coup in July 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on April 10. “Putting hundreds of lawyers in jail and on trial, and restricting their ability to act for people in police custody and in court, shows the dire state of Turkey’s criminal justice system and should be of grave concern to everyone in Turkey and internationally,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at New York City-headquartered HRW. “Lawyers are central guarantors of the right to a fair trial and Turkey’s willingness to flout it over the past three years is deeply alarming.”
Lawyers “associated with clients’ alleged crimes”. HRW has examined how since the failed coup—after which a state of emergency was in place for two years, ending in July last year—police and prosecutors have allegedly targeted lawyers with criminal investigation and arbitrary detention, associating them with their clients’ alleged crimes. “The government brings charges against lawyers who expose rights abuses with little or no evidence of their membership of terrorist organizations,” the watchdog said, referring to the typical claim from Turkish officials that persons being investigated or prosecuted in such circumstances have links to the alleged coup plotters behind the foiled putsch.
HRW examined case files of trials involving 168 lawyers between 2016 and February 2019.
On March 20 this year, an Istanbul court convicted 18 lawyers on terrorism charges for links with an outlawed leftist armed group. Among the lawyers convicted, 11 received prison sentences ranging from 8 years to 13 years 6 months and one received an 18-year-9-month sentence.
37 TURKEY Country Report May 2019 www.intellinews.com