Those arrested on the May Day demonstration in Istanbul are being denied all their legal rights.

The people who were arrested yesterday for joining the May Day demonstrations have been denied access to a lawyer, while the prosecutor Okan Özay told lawyers who reminded him of the law that: “What law? I will keep them in custody for 40 days if I want”.

In the meantime, a doctor saw the protestors who were being sent to the hospital for a health check in the police bus and said: “I will sign a report saying that you are all healthy without a check up”.

Around 300 people were kept waiting in police buses, while the police continued attacking them. Police handcuffed detainees from the back. The wounded, including children, were not taken to hospital. And the arm of KESK member Akman Şimşek was broken by police.

The lawyers tried to submit a complaint in Caglayan Courthouse objecting to unlawful and inhumane measures. The application of the lawyers was not even accepted and they were beaten by the police.

Lawyers could reach a prosecutor only at night

Lawyer Umit Aktaş talked to terror and social events prosecutor Okan Özsoy on the phone. Aktas, asking who ordered the arrests, was told by the prosecutor that he had issued the order. When Aktas recalled that people had been kept waiting for hours with their hands tied behind their backs, the prosecutor said: “I will not give an explanation of anything to you. I will keep them for 40 days like that if I want”. The prosecutor also said that he could decide on everything and the duration of the custody period and did not have to apply the law.

Lawyer Umit Aktas said that he would apply to the Lawyers’ Rights Centre of the Istanbul bar, adding that he is not hopeful about receiving a result and said: “The fate of 300 people is in the hands of a prosecutor who has lost his impartiality”.

In the meantime, people were taken to the Haseki Education and Research Hospital in 3 buses. A doctor coming onto one of the buses told detainees that she would look at the detainees in the bus, and that she would sign a report saying that all of them were healthy.