Ongoing detention of Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir

On 22 June 2016, the 14th Heavy Penal Court in Istandul extended the detention on remand of human rights lawyers Ms Ayşe Acinikli and Mr Ramazan Demir until 6 September 2016. The exact charges against the human rights lawyers are unknown, as their case file is confidential. However, Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir believe that they are being tried for membership in an illegal organisation, a charge that has often been used against human rights defenders and lawyers in Turkey.

Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir are human rights lawyers working for the Lawyers Association for Freedom (Özgürlükcü Hukukçular Derneĝi – ÖHD), an organisation that provides legal aid, actively advocates for more democratic laws in Turkey and has exposed numerous human rights violations perpetrated in the regions of the country under curfew. Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir, together with their colleagues, have been providing legal defence to forty-six lawyers who were arrested in 2011 on suspicion of “working for or belonging to a terrorist organisation” for defending members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

On 16 March 2016, nine human rights lawyers Ramazan Demir, Mr İrfan Arasan, Ayşe Acinikli, Mr Hüseyin Boğatekin, Mr Şefik Çelik, Mr Adem Çalışçı, Ms Ayşe Gösterişlioğlu, Mr Tamer Doğan and Mr Mustafa Rüzgar were arrested and placed in custody within the framework of an anti-terrorism operation targeting at least 89 individuals throughout the country. Because of the confidentiality of the lawyer's case files, the exact charges placed against them were and still remain unknown. The human rights lawyers, however, believe that were arrested on suspicion of affiliation, from 2011 to 2014, with an illegal organisation, a basis on which many human rights defenders and lawyers have been previously arrested and subsequently tried. In view of the confidentiality of the case files, the human rights lawyers also had no opportunity to challenge the charges that had been levied against them.

On 19 March 2016, after a hearing that lasted around 13 hours, the Istanbul First Criminal Court of Peace decided to conditionally release seven human rights lawyers from the pre-trial detention they had been placed into on 16 March 2016. A day earlier two other human rights lawyers, İrfan Arasan and Mustafa Rüzgar, were released. In its rullings the court stated that the evidence that had been provided was insufficient and that detention was a disproportionate measure of restraint under the circumstances. The criminal cases against the nine persons, however, were not closed. While in detention the human rights lawyers were interrogated about the interviews they had given in the media, complaints they had lodged before the European Court of Human Rights and visits to their clients.

On 6 April 2016, Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir were re-arrested and placed in pre-trial detention. The re-arrest became possible due to the decision of the Istanbul Second Criminal Court of Peace, which on 22 March 2016 quashed the decision of the Istanbul First Criminal Court of Peace to release Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir and seven other human rights lawyers, issuing new arrest warrants for four of the nine persons. The court argued that there was enough evidence showing that they had committed the alleged crime and that they could run away or damage the evidence. At the same time the court failed to inform the defence counsels about the hearing and deprived them, therefore, of the right to present counter-arguments.

On 22 June 2016, a trial was opened before the 14th Heavy Penal Court in the case of Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir. As a result of the hearing, the detention on remand of the human rights lawyers was extended until 6 September 2016. The concrete charges against Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir are unknown, as their case files have been made confidential pursuant to Article 153.2 of the Turkish Criminal Code of Procedure. However, the human rights lawyers believe that they are being tried for membership of an illegal organisation between 2011 and 2014. There is a clear pattern nowadays in Turkey that lawyers who defend individuals accused of membership in an illegal organisation are eventually charged with the same crime.

Front Line Defenders condemns the ongoing detention of Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir and the continuing judicial harrasment of human rights lawyers in the country, which it believes are directly linked to their legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights in Turkey.

Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Turkey to:

1. Withdraw all charges against human rights lawyers Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir and immediately and unconditionally release them from custody, as Front Line Defenders believes that they are being held and targeted solely as a result of their legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;

2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Ayşe Acinikli and Ramazan Demir while they are in detention;

3. Immediately cease all persecution, judicial harassment and intimidatory acts targeting human rights lawyers in Turkey;

4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Turkey are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.