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Archive
: A Tribute to Nelson Mandela then in jail - Prizewinning Ceremony 1985
“The award given by lawyers to a lawyer”
“L’hommage des avocats à un avocat”
“El homenaje de abogados a
un abogado”
“Il tributo degli avvocati ad un avvocato”
“Die Hommage von Anwälten zu einem Anwalt”
“L'omaggio degli avvocati ad un avvocato”
“De award gegeven door advocaten
aan een advocaat"
Depuis/Since/Dal/Seit/Sinds 1984
Thirty-five years after Nelson Mandela
The 25th "International Human Rights Prize Ludovic –Trarieux 2020
awarded jointly to
<
Barkin and Ebru TIMTIK (posthumously)
TURKEY
Two
sisters, Barkin Timtik, 38, and Ebru TImtik, 42, are both a member of the Board
of Directors of the Contemporary Lawyers' Association (Ҫağdaş
Hukukçular Derneği (ҪHD) and is one of 16 lawyers members of the Halkin
Hukuk Barosu (“People's
Rights Office” - HHB),
who have been arrested on September 12, 2017, during police raids precisely two
days before the hearing, where they were preparing to defend their clients,
Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, two teachers on hunger strike to protest
against their dismissal by a decree, May 23 in Ankara. Two other members of the
ÇHD were arrested respectively in November and December 2017. They are accused
of having been lawyers for members of the DHKP / C and as such, for having
visited their clients in prison and for having informed them of their right to
remain silent. According to the prosecution, the HHB is just one of the
sub-structures of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a
far-left Marxist organization, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey,
Europe and the United States.
Barkın
Timtik and Ebru TImtik, lawyers working for HHB were in charge of sensitive
cases of DHKP-C activists, has been subjected to continuous persecution since
2013. Barkın Timtik was first imprisoned between January 23, 2013 and
March 21, 2014 as part of the said trial. of ÇHD1, of which she also remains
one of the accused for "belonging to a terrorist organization",
because of the alleged links of the ÇHD with the DHKP / C.
On
December 15, 2016, Barkın Timtik was assaulted by the police and arrested,
while attending a funeral dinner to pay tribute to one of her clients, shot
dead by the police. She was detained at Esenyurt Police Station for four days.
She was reportedly beaten during her detention and when she was transferred
from one prison to another. She was not given the opportunity to access her
lawyers. Before being transferred to Silivri prison in Istanbul, Barkin Timtik
greeted the other lawyers with these words: “Today I am especially proud to be
part of your group [HHB]. I love you all and please greet all friends who are
not here now. We have to show the enemy the meaning of solidarity and struggle.
I know we are going to win! " She was then transferred to the prison of
Izmir, more than 500 km away, where she was detained with several of her
clients. Barkın Timtik was released at the hearing on February 16, 2017.
Two months
later, on April 20, 2017, Barkın Timtik was arrested again and briefly
detained, during a hearing where she was defending the family of Dilek Doğan,
a young woman killed in a police raid in 2015, because she supported her
clients by encouraging the public not to leave the courtroom. Three months
later, on July 17, 2017, Barkın Timtik and her sister Ebru were again
arrested during a press conference to defend the teachers on hunger strike in
Ankara, including the People's Rights Office.
On August
5, 2017, Barkin Timtik was arrested again along with 42 other protesters during
peaceful action in support of the hunger strike by Nuriye Gulmen and Semih
Ozakca. Eyewitnesses who were detained with her claimed that she was taken to
another section (of the police headquarters). Photos taken at the Istanbul
courthouse revealed that she was tortured while in custody. According to the HHB,
the investigating prosecutor and the justice of the peace issued a judicial
review decision without taking his statement about the abuse.
On 12th
September, Barkın Timtik and Ebru TImtik were among 16 lawyers of the ҪHD
arrested and charged with “being managers
of an armed terrorist organization”. The detention occurred two days before the
trial of her clients, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, two educators dismissed
from their positions following the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016, that
was due to begin on 14 September 2017. In the following months, other lawyers
from Halkın Hukuk Bürosu (HHB ) . All were accused of „membership in a
terrorist organization“.
After
spending a year in detention, Barkin Timtik and Ebru TImtik appeared on
September 10, 2018 before the 37th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Court at
the Bakırköy courthouse, during the so-called ÇHD2 trial. The lawyers in
particular objected to their appearance through the videoconference system
(SEGBIS) decided by the judges on the pretext of "travel expenses, length
of road and security". Faced with this refusal by the lawyers, the 37th
Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul court decided to bring the detainees to court.
Four days later, on September 14, 2018, the Court ordered released for Barkin
Timtik and Ebru TImtik along with all their co-accused lawyers. All the lawyers
have been released. However, the Trial Prosecutor appealed against the sentence
and the same panel of judges ordered the re-detention of 12 lawyers, in less
than 24 hours following their initial decision. Subsequently, the panel of
judges who had ordered their release was taken from the case and moved to other
courts. Barkın Timtik remained in jail since then. Ebru TImtik was not
re-arrested in spite of an arrest warrant against her.
The
hearing reopened on March 18th, 2019. But suddenly, two days after, the
Istanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court in Silivri Court House sentenced the 18 lawyers
of the People’s Law Office (Halkin Hukuk Bürosu) and the Progressive
Association of Jurists (CHD) to prison sentences from 2 years 15 days up to 18
years 9 months. Barkin Timtik received the harshest verdict: 18 years 9 months
prison for allegedly ‘founding and managing a terrorist organization’. On
October 8th 2019, Istanbul Court of Appeals upheld the relevant provision
without an oral proceedings. Their right to a fair trial was regularly
violated, and the case was based on “evidences” such as the statement of an
anonymous witness and their prison visits to their clients.
On May 24,
2019, at Silivri’s High Security prison, Barkın Timtik must be operated on
without warning and without warning her relatives of a tumor with the size of
16×16 centimeters. She was sent to hospital for surgery, but as long as she
remains in prison, there’s high risk for cancer.
Ebru
Timtik, who had benefited from the collective release of September 14, 2018,
was re-arrested on June 20, 2019, following the conviction handed down in her
absence. On January 3, 2020, she went on a hunger strike to demand a fair trial
and in particular to have his legal remedies examined. She turned her strike
into a "death fast" on April 5. She died in an Istanbul hospital on
the 238th day of her hunger strike on August 27, 2020. At the time of her
death, she weighed just 30 kilogrammes (65 pounds) .
On September 15th, 2020 the Court of Cassation
has upheld the prison sentences for 14 of the co-accused , but overturned the
case of Barkin Timtik because it should be reviewed in conjunction with the
other pending case against her on terrorism charges. The Courd has said also
that there no longer reason to examine the fairness or Ebru Timtik’s sentence,
due to her death.
