Turkey: Saturday Mothers/People are acquitted
On 26 May 2023, fourteen human rights defenders from Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları (Saturday Mothers/People) were acquitted of the charges of attending an illegal demonstration and not dispersing against warning by the Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance in Istanbul. Fourteen members of the group were detained on 30 August 2022 while attempting to make a press statement at the Altınşehir Graveyard for the Unidentified to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, and later charged with violating the law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law no. 2911) of the Turkish Penal Code.
On 4 May 2023, the first hearing of fourteen members of Saturday Mothers/People (Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları) took place at Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance in Istanbul. The human rights defenders are charged with attending an illegal demonstration and not dispersing against warning. The prosecutor is asking the court to prosecute the fourteen defenders under the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law no. 2911). All but two human rights defenders gave their statements and the hearing is set to continue on 26 May 2023.
Saturday Mothers/People is a human rights group, comprised of human rights defenders and families of victims of enforced disappearance in Turkey in the 1990s. They began organising weekly vigils at Galatasaray Square after the detention of Hasan Ocak on 21 March 1995 and the subsequent discovery of his tortured body in a common grave. Human rights defenders and the families of the victims gathered in Galatasaray Square for the first time on 27 May 1995, demanding an end to enforced disappearances, seeking information on the whereabouts of those who have disappeared and justice for the victims. The group decided to cease its weekly vigils on 13 March 1999 after they were increasingly targets of police attacks. The vigils resumed on 31 January 2009 following a ten year break. On 25 August 2018, the initiative marked its 700th week of protests. Saturday Mothers have been gathering in front of the Human Rights Association’s (İHD) İstanbul Office every Saturday to read out weekly press statements, since they were banned from staging weekly vigils at their original place, Galatasaray Square, in August 2018. According to data released by Truth Justice Memory Center, since the military coup on 12 September 1980 at least 1,352 people have been forcibly disappeared in Turkey. Among the 344 disappeared individuals for whom a complaint was lodged, the perpetrators were only convicted in 2 of those cases, a figure which has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights.
On 26 May 2023, fourteen human rights defenders from Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları (Saturday Mothers/People) were acquitted of the charges of attending an illegal demonstration and not dispersing against warning by the Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance in Istanbul. Fourteen members of the group were detained on 30 August 2022 while attempting to make a press statement at the Altınşehir Graveyard for the Unidentified to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, and later charged with violating the law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law no. 2911) of the Turkish Penal Code.
During the hearing, the video footage taken by law enforcement officers on the day of the arrest was played, which showed the exchange between the police and the human rights defenders. In the footage, the police are seen stopping the Saturday Mothers/People from making a press statement, to which the defenders object by saying that the police intervention is illegal and they have the right to make a statement. Afterwards, even though the human rights defenders agree to disperse, the video clearly shows that the police did not give reasonable time for them to leave.
Two witnesses said in their testimonies that the police had outnumbered the human rights defenders, that there were armoured vehicles, water cannons and riot police at the scene, and that the whole area was blockaded. One of the witnesses said that he heard one of the human rights defenders say that they would disperse if the police would not allow them to make a statement, but it would be impossible for them to leave because the police had encircled them and they could not make it through the blockade.
Following the statement of the defence lawyer, the prosecutor submitted his opinion to the court saying that the evidence showed that the police intervention started only one minute and 52 seconds after they gave a final warning, without giving the human rights defenders sufficient time to disperse. The prosecutor asked the court for the acquittal of all fourteen human rights defenders on the basis that the act for which they were being charged did not materialise.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the acquittal of fourteen human rights defenders who should not have been detained or prosecuted in the first place. Front Line Defenders also recalls that the members of Saturday Mothers/People are still being arrested every Saturday at Galatasaray Square in Istanbul where they try to hold their peaceful sit-in to demand justice for their loved ones who were forcibly disappeared in state custody.
Front Line Defenders reiterates its call to the Turkish authorities to comply with the Constitutional Court’s ruling which found that the human rights defenders’ right to hold meetings and demonstrations was violated and end the harassment of human rights defenders and the families of the disappeared.
On 4 May 2023, the first hearing of fourteen members of Saturday Mothers/People (Cumartesi Anneleri/İnsanları) took place at Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance in Istanbul. The human rights defenders are charged with attending an illegal demonstration and not dispersing against warning. The prosecutor is asking the court to prosecute the fourteen defenders under the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law no. 2911). All but two human rights defenders gave their statements and the hearing is set to continue on 26 May 2023.
Saturday Mothers/People is a group comprised of human rights defenders and families of victims of enforced disappearances in Turkey during the 1990s. Human rights defenders and the families of the victims gathered in Galatasaray Square in Istanbul for the first time on 27 May 1995, calling for an end to enforced disappearances, seeking information on the whereabouts of those who were forcibly disappeared and demanding justice for the victims. They continued to meet regularly until 1999 when the group had to cease their gatherings due to persistent attacks by security forces. Ten years later, on 31 January 2009, Saturday Mothers/People resumed their peaceful gatherings in Galatasaray Square without any disruption, until their 700th week on 25 August 2018. Since then, the group is not allowed to assemble at Galatasaray Square.
The Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance held the first hearing for the fourteen human rights defenders of the Saturday Mothers/People group on 4 May 2023. The group faces charges under article 32/1 of Law 2911 for attending an unarmed illegal demonstration and failing to disperse against warning which is punishable by prison sentence between a year and six months to three years.
On 30 August 2022, fourteen members of Saturday Mothers/People went to Altinşehir Graveyard for the Unidentified in Istanbul, where the bodies of two forcibly disappeared were found in 1995, to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances by making a press statement at the cemetery. The security forces, who were made aware of the gathering through the group’s call on the social media account of Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, blockaded the neighbourhood before the group arrived and encircled the human rights defenders and families of the disappeared in a “security perimeter”, not allowing them to enter the cemetery. The police warned the group to disperse through a loudspeaker without allowing them to leave the police blockade. All human rights defenders were detained and taken to Istanbul Police Headquarters and eventually released after their statements were taken. The same day, the group was rearrested upon the objection of the public prosecutor and released again that evening. They were later charged following an investigation by the public prosecutor.
The indictment against the fourteen human rights defenders consists of only four paragraphs in which it is stated that the police stopped the group before the gate of the cemetery and informed them that the district governor had banned the g athering. According to the indictment, the police warned the group to disperse and if they didn’t leave they would be arrested, claiming that the police waited for the group to disperse but as they refused to leave and lifted banners, they intervened in a proportionate manner and arrested everyone.
This case is part of a pattern of criminalisation of Saturday Mothers/People as another criminal case in which forty six human rights defenders of the organisation are facing the same charges is still ongoing at the Istanbul 21st Criminal Court of First Instance since 25 March 2021. The next hearing of this case will be on 7 July 2023. On 25 August 2018, the group was violently dispersed and arrested during their 700th gathering to demand justice for their loved ones at Galatasaray Square. Four human rights defenders are defendants in both cases. The human rights defenders have been banned from their landmark spot at Galatasaray Square since 2018, they have been repeatedly arrested and violently dispersed and have faced judicial harassment in an attempt to criminalise them.
Authorities have not abided to the Constitutional Court decision of 23 February 2023, which ruled that the State violated the “right to hold meetings and demonstration marches” of the applicant, who is a member of the Saturday Mothers/People. The Court also stated in its judgement that “wanting to hold a vigil and make a press statement by the applicant and the group she is a member of, to demand that their family members' be found and to raise awareness in the society about this particular issue should be met with respect in a democratic society.”
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned with the persistent attacks on the Saturday Mothers/People, as it believes it to be a reprisal against its legitimate and peaceful human rights work. The organisation expresses its particularly concern with the apparent lack of guarantees of due process, and the pattern of criminalisation.
