EYLEM SONBAHAR
A court in Istanbul has filed a criminal complaint against police officers over alleged unlawful conduct during the detention and prosecution of protesters in the Saraçhane demonstrations, citing claims made in defense statements by the defendants.
The second hearing in the trial of 139 people charged with participating in an "unlawful assembly and demonstration without dispersing despite warnings" took place at the Istanbul 49th Criminal Court of First Instance. The charges stem from protests that erupted in December 2022 in Istanbul’s Saraçhane district following the sentencing and brief detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure.
Due to the small capacity of the courtroom, the hearing was moved to the larger courtroom of the Istanbul 27th High Criminal Court. During the hearing, 10 defendants who had not attended the first session gave their defense statements.
One defense attorney argued that last year, 4,000 similar cases were filed under Turkey’s controversial Law No. 2911 on demonstrations and assemblies, with the majority ending in non-conviction. "Let’s put an end to this legal absurdity today," the attorney said, calling for immediate acquittal.
Attorney Pınar Akbina, beginning her defense by stating, “We see this as a political trial,” said: “We are in a period where it is very difficult for us to carry out our profession as lawyers. I’m a union lawyer, and I don’t want to have to explain that over and over. The ones who should be prosecuted are not our clients but the police officers who used torture. These cases should never have been opened. We reiterate our constitutional objections and our request for immediate acquittal.”
The prosecutor recommended rejecting the demands for immediate acquittal, citing the need to gather additional evidence. He also requested that video footage included in the case file be sent to an expert for analysis and that police officers who signed the incident reports be summoned as witnesses.
The court ruled to reject the immediate acquittal requests individually and decided to postpone the trial to Dec. 4. It also ruled that once the SEGBİS (video conferencing system) transcripts of the defense statements are added to the file, a criminal complaint will be filed with the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the alleged unlawful acts and procedures carried out by the police, as mentioned by the defendants in their statements.
