The first hearing of fourteen members of Saturday Mothers (Cumartesi Anneleri) will take place today at Küçükçekmece 1st Penal Court of First Instance in Istanbul. The human rights defenders are charged with attending an illegal demonstration and not dispersing against warning. The prosecutor is asking the court to prosecute the fourteen defenders under the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations (Law no. 2911).

On 30 August 2022, fourteen members of Saturday Mothers/People went to Altinşehir Graveyard for the Unidentified in Istanbul, where the bodies of two forcibly disappeared were found in 1995, to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances by making a press statement at the cemetery. The security forces, who were made aware of the gathering through the group’s call on the social media account of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, blockaded the neighbourhood before the group arrived and encircled the human rights defenders and families of the disappeared in a “security perimeter”, not allowing them to enter the cemetery.

The police warned the group to disperse through a loudspeaker without allowing them to leave the police blockade. All human rights defenders were detained and taken to Istanbul Police Headquarters and eventually released after their statements were taken. The same day, the group was rearrested upon the objection of the public prosecutor and released again that evening. They were later charged following an investigation by the public prosecutor. The indictment against the fourteen human rights defenders consists of only four paragraphs in which it is stated that the police stopped the group before the gate of the cemetery and informed them that the district governor had banned the gathering. According to the indictment, the police warned the group to disperse and if they didn’t leave they would be arrested, claiming that the police waited for the group to disperse, but as they refused to leave and lifted banners, they intervened in a proportionate manner and arrested everyone.