1273 people, including intellectuals, artists and journalists, have published a joint declaration on imprisoned lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal who are on death fast. The appeal stresses that the hunger strikers' demand for a fair trial is legitimate.

Timtik and Ünsal are in a very critical condition after months of food deprivation. Both were sentenced to long prison terms due to contradictory statements by a key witness. The statements of defector Berk Ercan have so far led to the arrest of almost 200 people. Among them was Mustafa Koçak, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment and died on 24 April after 297 days of hunger strike. All of them were sentenced under terrorist statutes in the complex of proceedings against alleged members of the DHKP-C.

The appeal published today says: "Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal are now in a deadly phase in terms of health. They were detained on 12 September 2017 and subsequently imprisoned. After about a year, they were released from custody on the first day of the trial against them, taking into account the evidence status. Only one day later, after the appeal against their release, they were again issued an arrest warrant. The delegation of judges who had revoked the arrest warrant was illegally disbanded and other judges were appointed in their place."

The right to a fair trial and defence is an international standard and applies to all individuals in society, the appeal said and continued:

"We hereby declare that we will work to ensure that the cases of Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal are given priority in the appeal process and are reviewed in a fair manner. We will make every effort to ensure that the cases of their clients Helin, Ibrahim and Mustafa are evaluated by publicly known and independent lawyers and that the results are made public. We ask Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal to end their death fast and return healthy to the legal struggle that we all need.”

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