The vigil of relatives of seriously ill and political prisoners, which has been taking place in Istanbul for months, was broken up again on Friday. The police used force against participants as well as media representatives accompanying the action and made arrests. In addition to activists Cemile Çiftçi and Fince Akman, ANF reporter Zeynep Kuray was also taken into custody. The journalist was harassed by male officers and dragged from the square with her hands cuffed behind her back. Police also used physical force against journalist Gülistan Dursun from the women's news agency JinNews and freelance journalist Hayri Tunç. In Dursun's case, an attempt was made to confiscate the correspondent's camera.

The "Justice Vigil", as the vigil in Istanbul is called, has been going on for 32 weeks. It is carried out by relatives of sick prisoners and supporters and aims to end the release of sick prisoners behind bars and the end of the Turkish Ministry of Justice's notorious measure of making the release of political prisoners after serving their prison sentence dependent on a confession of remorse. There are many people in Turkish prisons whose regular prison term has long since expired and who are still not released because of their political views.

Since the Justice Watch was launched, there has been violence against participants by security forces almost every week. Cemile Çiftçi and Fince Akman have been affected for the second time. The women met at Çağlayan Square in Istanbul's Şişli district at noon today and marched hand in hand to the front of the Palace of Justice to protest against the Turkish state's "hostile criminal treatment" of sick prisoners. In front of the courthouse, Çiftçi and Akman were initially surrounded by police before being taken into custody. Cemile Çiftçi is the sister of Selim Çiftçi, who is imprisoned in Ümraniye and is on the list of "seriously ill prisoners" of the Human Rights Association (IHD). Fince Akman is the mother of Yakup Akman, who is imprisoned in the high security prison Silivri No. 3. The Kurd, who lived in Istanbul until his arrest, had reported a fire in Aydos Forest to the fire brigade in 2019, and was later sentenced to an aggravated life sentence plus an additional 25 years as an alleged "PKK arsonist".

Both Cemile Çiftçi and Fince Akman have been detained dozens of times for their participation in the justice vigil. Several times they were reported to the police for taking part in an "unauthorised demonstration". Both women are now facing charges. During their detention, they announced that they would continue to stand up for their relatives and all other sick prisoners.