European Democratic Lawyers
On the 20th of October, in the university of Turin the AED-EDL has organized a conference on the repression of social movements and counter practices in Europe.
Here is the programme:
Download the flyer
Hear the interventions
OUR COLLEAGUES ARRESTED IN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION HAVE BEEN RELEASED BUT, A FEW HOURS LATER AND AFTER THE PROSECUTOR’S APPEAL, A NEW ARREST WARRANT HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE SAME COURT FOR 15 OF THEM.
A mission of the AED – EDL, composed by Italian, Spanish, Catalonian, Dutch and French lawyers: Simonetta CRISCI, Gilberto PAGANI, Ezio MENZIONE, Raffaella MULTEDO, Rossella SANTO, Robert SABATA, Adrià FONT, Hanno BOS and Florian BORG have been observing the aforementioned trial against our colleagues, the lawyers Ahmet MANDACI, Aycan ÇİÇEK, Ayşegül ÇAĞATAY, Aytaç ÜNSAL, Barkın TİMTİK, Behiç AŞÇI, Didem BAYDAR ÜNSAL, Ebru TİMTİK, Engin GÖKOĞLU, Naciye DEMİR, Özgür YILMAZ, Süleyman GÖKTEN, Şükriye ERDEN, Yağmur EREREN EVİN, Yaprak TÜRKMEN, Zehra ÖZDEMİR, Ezgi ÇAKIR, Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI (President of the ÇHD), Günay DAĞ and Oya ASLAN who are members of the Progressive Lawyers Association (Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği, ÇHD). The majority of them are simultaneously lawyers working for the People’s Law Office (Halkın Hukuk Bürosu, HHB).
Seventeen lawyers were under pre-trial detention until yesterday, when the Court decided to free them under several measures. Even though the decision was announced at the evening, they were physically released today (7.00 am, in the morning). Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Yaprak Türkmen were under incomunicado pre-trial detention. All of them faced very difficult situations in jail. During the hearing, they described in detail the physical attacks they faced during their pre-trial detention process. Among the lawyers who were detained Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Yaprak Türkmen were kept in the High Security Prison of İstanbul in Silivri and the remaining15 lawyers were sent to prisons in six different cities, outside the sphere of jurisdiction and far from their families, without any reason.
But after the Prosecutor’s objection, the same court issued a few hours later new arrest warrants against 15 of them.
Once again, the actions undertaken by Prosecutors and Courts against Lawyers are definitely jeopardizing the Rule of Law in Turkey. The Court released the lawyers on the account they were professionals exercising their profession and because the length of the Pre-trial detention had been denounced by a large number of Humans Rights organisations. Astonishingly, with the exact same arguments the Court has decided to issue new arrest warrants.
We express great concern about this decision, evidently taken under political pressure on the judiciary.
In his bill of indictment, the prosecutor accused Barkın TİMTİK and Özgür YILMAZ of “forming and directing an illegal organization” (they are facing 20 to 22.5 years of jail – in accordance with the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) 314/1, Law No.: 3737 5/1), and the other defendants were accused of “membership in an illegal organization” (with jail for 7.5 years to 20 years – in accordance with TCK 314/2, Law No.: 3713 5/1). The proof against them is slight.
It appears inacceptable that:
It is our consideration, that lawyers are here unfairly attacked for taking a stand in defence of Fundamental Rights and Liberties. We remind the Turkish authorities that the BASIC PRINCIPLES ON THE ROLE OF LAWYERS adopted by the 8th United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, which took place in Havana, Cuba from the 27th of August to the 7th September 1990, enshrine the necessary Guarantees for the correct functioning of this professional activity.
18. Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.
The Turkish authorities have taken for granted that, as enshrined by the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (22nd of August 2016), associations of lawyers, together with non-governmental organizations, should build networks to act in coordination and solidarity to defend and protect lawyers from attacks. So professional associations of lawyers like ÇHD have a vital role to play in upholding professional standards and ethics, protecting their members from persecution and improper restrictions and infringements.
We urge the Turkish authorities to take account of these very serious concerns with the aim to avoid future human rights violations during the very difficult period Turkey is going through at the moment. Recently, the state of emergency was lifted, but that will not be enough to reverse this repressive trend on an upward trajectory. Systematic action is needed to restore respect for human rights, enable civil society to regain its momentum and ease the climate of suffocating fear that has swept the country.
Yet, despite the repression, lawyers demand justice and equality, at the risk of being unfairly punished for taking a stand, guided by their deep commitment to human rights, justice and freedom. Instead of punishing them, Turkey should be proud of these people who form a vibrant and brilliant human rights community.
As jurists we cannot accept this harassment of our colleagues and human rights defenders. Sadly, there is a long tradition of attacking the defence in Turkey. So, we make a call upon Turkish authorities to prevent the development of intimidation against lawyers and humans rights defenders.
Colmar, 15th September 2018,
AED (Avocats Européens Démocrates / European Democratic Lawyers)
Our colleague Ceren Uysal participated recently in a press conference in Vienna dealing with the current situation in Turkey. We publish here her contribution.
First of all I would like to thank you for the opportunity to describe my point of view on what has been going on in Turkey recently. It means a lot to me to talk about the recent situation as a lawyer and I also accept this as a responsibility.
I would like to start with a general statement: Currently there is no judiciary in Turkey. The institutions in justice system are not working independently and impartially of the demands and priorities of the political power because today more than 2000 judges and prosecutors and around 300 lawyers are still in jail and it directly means that the so called free actors of the legal area are mentally arrested. Even the numbers are still not certain but it’s claimed that in total, more than 200.000 people are in jail.
I would like to briefly describe the current situation of the rule of law 3000 judges and public prosecutors were suspended even before 24 hours had passed after the military coup attempt. It shows that the judges and public prosecutors were blacklisted according to their political opinions and that these lists were already prepared before the coup attempt.
Before the state of emergency, there were no restrictions to the access of lawyers. But in the first 6 months of the state of emergency, the right to access to a lawyer was restricted during the first 5 days of the detention. Now this restriction was removed through a new governmenal decree; however it did not solve the problem because again with a governmental decree, the government had already changed the Criminal Procedure Law and right now, there is an article which restricts the right to access to a lawyer for the first 24 hours.
Also, the interviews between the lawyers and the suspects under detention in jail are recorded. The Decree also gives the prison guards the power to participate at the interview and seize the documents if they think it is necessary.
The right to information about the charges is an important issue these days which, of course, is one of the most important elements of the right of defence. For instance, many judges and prosecutors who are still in jail, defended themselves against the accusation of being a member of Gülen organization but they were arrested with the accusation of threatening to overthrow the constitutional order.
The other subject to be underlined is the presumption of innocence. We are witnessing how the judicial and administrative practices are combined through governmental decrees. As a result it is easy to claim that right now this princible is not valid for at least half of the society. Hundreds of thousands of puclic officers were dismissed with a justification of having a relation with terorist organizations. It is obvious that in a state of law, such a dismission practice definitely needs a judicial sentence. However today, hundreds of thousands of people are facing the results of a judgement without a judicial
process. So, since the state of emergency,the presemption of innocence has been violated more than ever.
In my point of view, in this whole picture the attorney immunity has to be underlined because it is impossible to imagine the existence of the right of defence, when there is no attorney immunity. The repression against lawyers – unfortunately – has a history in Turkey. But it was never like today. Right now, hundreds of lawyers are in prison. When the repression of the past and today’s circumstances are combined, the result turns out to be a disaster for the right of defence. Many victims of the state of emergency, especially who are accused to be a member of Gülen organization, could not find a lawyer because lawyers are afraid to represent them.
Finally, the independance of the judiciary must be accepted as the main subject. As a lawyer, personally I do not remember any period in Turkey when the judiciary was completely independent. On the contrary, for some types of crimes or defendents, the judiciary was only a mechanism that worked for the benefits of the State. However, it is possible to claim that nowadays, there has been a fundemantal change. The arrest of 3000 judges and prosecutors also means that all the judicial mechanisms are working with the threat of arrestment today. In the sense of this reality, it is obvious that the defence of a suspect or the evidences in a file are less important than the benefits and desires of the State‘s power.
Briefly, Turkey never was a rose garden. But the lack of trust in the judicary had never reached this dimension. There was no right of defence for the opponents before the state of emergency. But after the state of emergency, not only for the part of the society who reacts against the reorganization of the state, but also for people who just have concerns, there is not a bit of chance to use the right of defence. Today, in Turkey’s courthouses or prisons there is no bit of justice, not even the hope of justice. We just have stories, explaining us how peoples lifes were ruined under this completly under- control situation. We hope that one day these stories will be told everywhere and will help all of us to remember the importance of the rule of law, like bread, water and air.
I would like to finish my words with one of my beloved colleagues; Selçuk Kozağaçlı. He is still the president of Progressive Lawyers Association and he has been practicing law for nearly 20 years. He is in jail since November 2017 with 20 more members of Progressive Lawyers Association.
He sent this letter to us:
“I spent 60 days in a one-person cell, under a full isolation. On the 60th day of my imprisonment, the guards came and told me that “my demand of participating in “collective events” was accepted”. Wow! Now I have the right to go out of my cell every week once for 2 hours. I asked them the names of the prisoners that I could finally meet. And the answer was extra-ordinary: “For now, you will go out
from your cell but you will be alone!” So, I rejected.
One day after this occasion, my lawyers visited me. And next to our room, there was another
prisoner, Deniz. He called me and told that I should accept to go out from my cell, even I would be alone. He said that he is doing this – alone –for more than 2 months and he shouted at me and said that I need to see the sky at least 2 hours in a week. Deniz is in a cell – alone – for one year already.
We do not have a judiciary in Turkey right now. What we have is just a group of public officers who are following the orders of the government. They are full of fear, because they know that whenever they make a decision which tries to focus on the fundemental human rights, – not a perfect one but for instance one verdict which is better than the avarage of the rest – they know that they will be a prisoner too. Or at least another judge, prosecutor or even the government will announce that they do not accept the verdict and not respect it. Like the last occasion about the Constitutional Court’s verdict…
I should underline that I am not calling myself as a prisoner. When there is no judiciary, the people who are in jail can not be accepted as prisoners. We are just the hostages of this AKP regime. We were imprisoned under force by the power. This is all. As one of our beloved judges said, all these court decisions will only be valid through this government’s life-period.
They are now forcing us to wear one single uniform and also try to defeat us with this pure isolation. But we are resisting with all our power and will.
I send my best wishes to all of you with hope and with the strong belief in our solidarity. Please don’t worry and just remember, we are resisting this arbitrariness.”
On the 8th of November 2017, Selcuk Kozagacli, President of the ÇHD, a progressive association of lawyers and a member of the AED, was arrested with great violence and detained in Istanbul. The accusations against our colleague justifying his detention by the Turkish authorities consist of complicity in terrorism.
Our colleague and friend Selcuk Kozagacli is one of the best-known human rights defenders in Turkey.
He recently denounced, during the general assembly of the Istanbul bar association held in ANKARA on the 16th of October, systematic acts of torture committed on people recently arrested, such as the tearing of nails, rape, the introduction of objects in the anus of the prisoners …
Today our colleague Selcuk Kozagacli is himself exposed to these same barbaric acts. To be convinced of this, it suffices to visualize the consequences of the conditions of his arrest. Our colleague is now on a hunger strike to try to force get his appearance before a judge.
The EDA demands the immediate release of Selcuk Kozagacli and the following sixteen lawyers from the Turkish authorities: Barkın Timtik, Ebru Timtik, Süleyman Gökten, Ezgi Çakır, Ahmet Mandacı, Yağmur Ereren, Aytaç Ünsal, Didem Baydar Ünsal , Ayşegül Çağatay, Engin Gökoğlu, Behiç Aşçı, Aycan Çiçek, Şükriye Erden, Özgür Yılmaz, Zehra Özdemir and Naciye Demi, who did not commit any other crimes than fulfilling their function of defender and denouncing the blatant violation of the rights of their clients.
Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Den Haag, Berlin, Rome, Brussels…
9th November 2017.
Dix sept avocats turcs sont en détention, dans différentes régions du pays ; seize d’entre eux depuis plusieurs semaines.
Le 8 novembre 2017, Selcuk Kozagacli président du ÇHD, association d’avocats progressistes, membre de l’AED a été à son tour interpellé dans une grande violence, et placé en détention à Istanbul. Les accusations portées contre nos confrères et justifiant aux yeux des autorités turques leur détention, consistent en des faits de complicité de terrorisme
Notre confrère et ami Selcuk Kozagacli est l’un des plus connus défenseur des droit de l’homme en Turquie.
Il a récemment dénoncé, au cours de l’assemblée général des Barreaux qui s’est tenue à ANKARA le 16 octobre derniers, des actes de tortures systématiques commis sur les personnes arrêtées ces derniers temps, tel que l’arrachement des ongles, des viols, l’introduction d’objets dans l’anus des détenus…
Aujourd’hui notre confrère Selcuk Kozagacli est lui même exposé à ces mêmes actes barbares. Il suffit pour s’en convaincre de visualiser les conséquences des conditions de son interpellation
Notre confrère est aujourd’hui en grève de la faim pour tenter d’obtenir sa comparution devant un juge.
L’ AED exige des autorités turques la remise en liberté immédiate de Selcuk Kozagacli et des seize autres avocats, dont les noms suivent, Barkın Timtik, Ebru Timtik, Süleyman Gökten, Ezgi Çakır, Ahmet Mandacı, Yağmur Ereren, Aytaç Ünsal, Didem Baydar Ünsal, Ayşegül Çağatay, Engin Gökoğlu, Behiç Aşçı, Aycan Çiçek, Şükriye Erden, Özgür Yılmaz, Zehra Özdemir et Naciye Demi, qui n’ont pas commis d’autres crimes que de remplir leur fonction de défenseur et de dénoncer l’absence la violations flagrantes des droits les plus fondamentaux de leurs clients.
The AED demands that the Turkish Government stop all hostility against human rights lawyers. The numerous irregular and arbitrary detentions are an authoritarian and repressive response against Turkish lawyers, charged with terrorism or activities against the state. The Republic of Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and must therefore respect and promote the defence of human rights.
We are asking for the immediate release of lawyers:
– Me. UÇAR Sezin
– Me. GÜMÜŞTAS Özlem
– Me. Gulhan KAYA
The first two were arrested October 19th around 2 o’clock in the morning. The latest news is that they are still held in the anti-terrorist section of Vatan, where they can be held for 7 days. All offices were searched. Even the apartment in which the 3 lawyers live was searched in violation of the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure (without the presence of the prosecutor, or an official of the Bar, or the mayor and without witnesses). Thus, computers and digital equipment were seized. Four months ago, as part of the same investigation, the lawyers went to testify and submitted an application to the judge. Despite this, the judge found it more appropriate to search the offices and the home.
All three are members of “ezilenlerin hukuk bürosu” (Legal Office of the Opponents). They are active in the HDP and have represented the co-chair of this political formation. They currently defend the families of the dead young people murdered in Suruç and have intervened in the bomb case in Ankara.
These are only a part of the arrests: Nihat Goktas is on hunger strike, Ozgen Sadet (sister of a victim of the Suruç massacre) has been arrested, together with journalists from Etkin Haber, Ajansi Isimaz Temel and Havva Custan and 11 others. There are arrest warrants for more than 10 people.
The AED denounces these political detentions and demands the release of the imprisoned colleagues and all the persons concerned.
Créteil, Barcelona, Harlem, on the 22nd October 2017
AED- EDL (European Democratic Lawyers) & The Foundation of the Endangered Lawyer
L’AED exige du Gouvernement turc l’arrêt de toute hostilité contre les avocats défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme. Continuellement des détentions irrégulières et arbitraires se produisent comme réponse autoritaire et répressive contre les avocats et juristes turcs, moyennant des chefs d’accusations de terrorisme ou activités contre l’État. La République de Turquie est membre du Conseil de l’Europe et doit donc respecter et promouvoir la défense de Droits de l’Homme.
Nous demandons ici, la mise immédiate en liberté des avocats:
– Me. UÇAR Sezin
– Me. GÜMÜŞTAS Özlem
– Me. Gulhan KAYA
Les deus premières ont été arrêtées le 19 octobre vers 2 heures du matin. Aux dernières nouvelles elles sont toujours détenues à la section antiterroriste de Vatan/İstanbul avec possibilité d’être maintenues pendant 7 jours. Tous les bureaux ont été perquisitionnés. L’appartement dans lequel vivent les 3 avocats a également été perquisitionné en violation du code de procédure pénale turque (sans la présence du procureur, ou du fonctionnaire du Barreau, ou du maire et sans témoins). Ainsi, des ordinateurs et du matériel digital ont été saisis. Pourtant, il y a 4 mois de cela, dans le cadre de l’enquête, les avocats étaient allés témoigner et avaient soumis une requête au juge. Malgré cela, ce dernier a trouvé plus adapté de faire des perquisitions dans les cabinets et le domicile.
Tous trois sont membres de “ezilenlerin hukuk bürosu” (Bureau légal des opposants). Ils sont aussi actifs dans le HDP et ont représenté le coprésident de cette formation politique. Ils défendent les familles des jeunes gens morts assassinés à Suruç et interviennent également dans le cas dossier de la Bombe à Ankara.
D’autre part, Nihat Goktas (en grève de la faim), Ozgen Sadet (sœur d’une victime du massacre de Suruç), les journalistes de Etkin Haber, Ajansi Isimaz Temel et Havva Custan ainsi que 11 autres personnes ont été arrêtées. Il y a par ailleurs des mandats d’arrêt à l’encontre de plus de 10 personnes.
L’AED dénonce ces détentions politiques et demande la libération des confrères détenus et de toutes les personnes concernées.
A Créteil, Barcelone, Harlem, le 22 octobre 2017.
AED (Avocats Européens Démocrates) & Fondation de l’Avocat Menacé
Since mid-September, these lawyers are detained in Ankara, Istanbul and Diyarbakır.
The number of lawyers prosecuted in Turkey is 1343 after this last wave of raids against lawyers. 524 of them have been arrested since the staged coup attempt in July 2016.
There are lawyers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Catalonia, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey who share the same democratic, modern and humane ideals in Europe.
We are convinced that our colleagues are only exposed to state repression because of their professional activities.
We will not stop until we know they are safe. We demand the release of the lawyers who have been imprisoned!
European Democratic Lawyers (AED-EDL)
The events that have taken place on the 1st of October in Catalonia are very concerning for a Democracy. Therefore, we severely condemn the actions taken by the Policía Nacional and the Guardia Civil, which have violated the fundamental rights of the people, like the right to health and physical integrity, the right to political participation, the freedom of assembly, the right to vote and the freedom of expression. The Spanish police forces have acted in a totally disproportionate and unjustified manner, in a context of passive and peaceful protest, without acts of provocation or violence being committed.
The first aim of the police action was to frighten the population in order to dissuade them from voting – without going into the legality of the vote. Moreover, some of the action on the ground of the Guardia Civil and the Policía Nacional has exceeded the order of the judicial authority. These police forces needed a justification to act violently, with hatred, against independence, a justification that this judicial decision provided them. This explains the gratuitous and cruel aggressions against citizens who were in the polling stations as well as the systematic destruction public furniture and school buildings.
Police action has violated the law by the widespread and indiscriminate violence against the population with the use of anti-riot materials such as rubber bullets or tear gas, which are strictly prohibited in situations where there is no serious danger. This was not the case, instead there were millions of people exercising fundamental rights in a peaceful manner. Besides the physical – more than 870 wounded – and psychological damage, their actions have prevented thousands of people from voting, through unprecedented repressive action at European level. Their actions did not even respect people in situations of vulnerability such as the elderly, they attacked the sexual integrity of women and caused extensive damage to community-owned equipment.
This widespread and disproportionate repressive action against all citizens of a territory without distinction is contrary to the rules of any democratic state.
The AED considers that the problem lies in the political weakness of the Spanish government to democratically approach a political demand and denounces the instrumental use of the police, of prosecutors and judges who should not be agents or arbitrators in a conflict of political nature.
Finally, the AED stresses the impressive silence of the EU institutions on this conflict.
2nd of October 2017
Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Athens,
Download this press release in FRENCH or in ENGLISH
The Bureau of the Association “AVOCATS EUROPEANS DEMOCRATES” (AED) -created 30 years ago and which has brought together associations and unions of European lawyers committed to the defense of the rights of people- has met in Berlin and notes with concern some of the reactions of the Spanish administrative and judicial authorities against the decision of the political authorities and the citizens of Catalonia to celebrate on the 1st of October a referendum on self-determination approved by a law of the Catalonian Parliament and organized by its government. The reaction of the Spanish government has been to challenge its validity, while the Spanish Constitutional Court suspended the law.
Regardless of the debate on the legal validity and the political value that may result from such a referendum, provisionally suspended by a court of constitutional guarantees, and regardless of the debate if the suspension of the referendum automatically means to prevent violently its effective celebration, in these days we are witnessing restrictions on the fundamental rights of the citizenship, often without judicial intervention, such as the freedom of expression, the freedom of information, the right of assembly, the secret and integrity of communications and the right to the natural judge predetermined by the law, going far beyond measures characteristic of a state of emergency.
Thus, the public mail service, without judicial authorization, has withheld correspondence for its content; public initiatives to discuss the referendum have been suspended; citizens have been identified and detained for the only reason of publicly defending their political ideas; print material has been seized, together with the red carnations, which were distributed to emphasize the peaceful character of the Catalonian proposal for political change. More than 700 Catalan mayors have been summoned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, who has opened criminal proceedings against Catalonian Parliamentarians, as well as all the Catalan Government in full. Printing presses haven been registered without previous judicial order and the media has issued coercive police warnings.
These are signs of the democratic weakness of the Spanish State and are part of a repressive strategy that denies politics as an instrument of change. The AED considers this corresponds to an undemocratic violation of fundamental rights and demands the Spanish State to reinstate these political and civil rights immediately.
Free our 14 colleagues, members of ÇHD (Progressive Lawyers Association), arrested in Turkey:
Barkın Timtik
Ebru Timtik
Süleyman Gökten
Ezgi Çakır
Ahmet Mandacı
Yağmur Ereren
Aytaç Ünsal
Didem Baydar Ünsal
Ayşegül Çağatay
Engin Gökoğlu
Behiç Aşçı
Aycan Çiçek
Şükriye Erden
Özgür Yılmaz
Zehra Özdemir
Naciye Demir
We have been informed that our 14 of our colleagues have been sent to jail in Ankara, Istanbul and Diyarbakır. We are very worried about the situation of the lawyers Barkin Timtik, Engin Gökoglu and Ozgur Yılmaz.
16 members of ÇHD were arrested on the 12th of September in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Ordu and Diyarbakır. We have been informed that our colleagues have been tortured. Our colleague, Engin Gökoğlu, who has been on hunger strike for 28 days, has been sent to the hospital after he severely beaten by police officers
The president of ÇHD Selçuk and Betül Kozağaçlı have not been arrested but we have been informed that their practice of lawyering has been limited and their phones and computers seized.
As we have been informed, with this last wave of crackdowns against lawyers, the number of lawyers under criminal prosecution in Turkey is now 1343. 524 of them have been arrested since the coup attempt in July 2016.
We urge the Turkish government to ensure that the 16 lawyers mentioned above are immediately released because we believe that they were taken into custody solely because of their professional activity as lawyers.
We demand to take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of lawyers in Turkey as well as their ability to perform their professional duties without fear of reprisal, hindrance, intimidation or harassment.
We express our concern over the situation in Turkey where the regime of President Erdogan harasses lawyers and pursues them by the tribunals, used as a weapon for repression. The lawyers seem to be purged because of the exercise of their duties as Lawyers defenders.
The AED finally wants to express its concern over the situation of human rights defenders in Turkey and emphasises the due respect for human rights and the rule of law. We are very concerned with situation of the persecuted lawyers.
Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, 13th of September 2017.
l’AED entend dénoncer la criminalisation des défenseurs des droits de l’homme en Turquie et en particulier la mise en cause personnelle de notre confrère Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI, visant à déstabiliser la défense et à l’empêcher de mener à bien la défense des droits fondamentaux de ses clients Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Özakça.
L’AED en appelle à la vigilance de toutes les organisations d’avocats en Europe, pour s’assurer que notre confrère Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI pourra mener sa mission d’avocat à bien, librement et sans intimidations de quelque nature que se soit.
The AED intends to denounce the criminalization of human rights defenders in Turkey and in particular the personal intimidation of our colleague Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI, aimed at destabilizing the defense and preventing it from successfully defending the fundamental rights of his clients Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Özakça.
The AED calls for the vigilance of all lawyers’ organizations in Europe to ensure that our colleague Selçuk KOZAĞAÇLI will be able to carry out his duty as a lawyer, freely and without intimidation of any kind whatsoever.
Paris, 13th July 2017