Lawyer Ebru Timtik on death fast for 150 days
Lawyer Ebru Timtik is on a death fast in a Turkish prison demanding a fair trial. Her colleague Seda Şaraldı visited her in the Silivri prison complex and tells her impressions.
Lawyer Ebru Timtik and her colleague Aytaç Ünsal, both from the Istanbul-based People's Legal Bureau (Halkın Hukuk Bürosu, HHB), are in a very critical condition after 150 and 119 days respectively of death fast in Turkish prison. 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.
Lawyer Seda Şaraldı visited her colleague Ebru Timtik on Friday in the high security prison Silivri near Istanbul and told ANF about her impressions. According to her, Timtik last weighed 46 kilos. How much weight she has lost since then is unknown, as no further measurement has been taken. She suffers from wounds in her mouth and pain in the back, neck and head area. According to Seda Şaraldı she still made a good and resistant impression: "Ebru emphasized that she and her colleague are on death fast to demand justice. She said many people have been sued in the scope of the same investigation but lawyers were the first to be sentenced. Ebru says that this is an attack on the defence as a whole. In this context they not only demand a fair trial, but also resist the attack on their profession. Ebru continues to make plans for the future. She is dealing with individual petitions to the Constitutional Court about the violations of rights in the trial. Even in prison she continues her work as a lawyer and defender of rights."
Lawyer Seda Şaraldı also visited her colleagues Barkın Timtik and Oya Aslan, who are jailed in the scope of the same trial and went on a solidarity hunger strike in prison on 10 May. Barkın and Ebru Timtik are sisters and staying in the same cell and Barkın is taking care of his sister.
According to Seda Şaraldı, the demands of the death fast are achievable. Referring to the deteriorating health of Ebru Timtik, she called for solidarity with those who are on death fast. "Injustice has become a common problem in this country. As long as there is silence on this issue, new injustices will continue to arise", the lawyer said.
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