Presidents of the bar associations of Ankara, İstanbul, Kocaeli, Adana, İzmir and Yalova have visited lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal who have been on death fast for months demanding fair trial. Despite the fact that they are unfit to be imprisoned, which has been confirmed by the forensic medicine institute, the court has refused to release them. They have been in hospital in Istanbul against their will for 20 days.

The visit was joined by the following: Istanbul Bar Association President Mehmet Durakoğlu, Kocaeli Bar Association President Bahar Gültekin Candemir, Adana Bar Association President Veli Küçük, İzmir Bar Association President Özkan Yücel, Ankara Bar Association President Erinç Sağkan and Yalova Bar Association President Fedai Doğruyol.

On the other hand, the vigil held in front of the Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, where Ebru Timtik is forcibly hospitalized, was today joined by the Communist Movement of Turkey (THK) leader, lawyer Aysel Tekerek and lawyers Gönül Erdem, spokesperson of the Lawyers’ Movement.

The death fast of Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal

Ebru Timtik is a lawyer in the left-wing association "People's Legal Bureau" (Turkish: Halkın Hukuk Bürosu"). She has been on a death fast for 229 days now. Her colleague Aytaç Ünsal has refused any intake of food for 198 days. Both were sentenced to long prison terms due to contradictory statements of the chief witness Berk Ercan. The charges of this defector have led to the arrest of almost 200 people. They were all sentenced according to terror paragraphs in the complex of proceedings against alleged members of the DHKP-C. Among them are several members of the music band Grup Yorum and Mustafa Koçak, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and died last April on hunger strike as a result of forced feeding.