ISTANBUL: The trial of nearly 200 people, among them students and journalists arrested over Turkey’s biggest protests in more than a decade, opened in Istanbul on Friday, an AFP correspondent said.
In the dock are 189 suspects who were rounded up in a government crackdown on protests that erupted following the March 19 detention and subsequent jailing of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. Most are students but among them are eight journalists, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, who were covering the biggest wave of street protests to grip Turkey since 2013.
They are facing a number of charges, notably “taking part in illegal rallies and marches” and “failing to disperse despite police warnings”, according to court documents. Other charges include carrying a weapon, covering their faces to hide their identity and incitement to commit a crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Thursday.
On Friday morning, Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse was packed with supporters, among them family members, journalists, university lecturers and lawmakers from the main opposition CHP party, an AFP correspondent said.
Istanbul’s jailed mayor is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s greatest political rival and CHP’s candidate for the 2028 race, with his arrest prompting tens of thousands of people to hit the streets defying a protest ban in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and Izmir.
Police were quick to crack down, using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse the protesters and detaining nearly 2,000 people, many during pre-dawn raids. The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has said more than 819 people will be tried over the protests in 20 criminal investigations.
Addressing the court on behalf of the eight Turkish journalists, lawyer Veysel Ok called for their acquittal. “They were there as journalists to cover the protests.. that’s what they are paid for,” he told the judge, who rejected the acquittal request but later agreed to separate their case from that of the students.
Their case will be heard separately along with that of four lawyers also being tried in connection with the protests, their lawyer said. Outside the courthouse, a large crowd of supporters gathered to protest, vowing to stand by their friends and family members, an AFP correspondent said.
“We are here for the trials of our friends who are in custody. We’re by their side, we won’t leave them on their own,” a student called Ahmetcan Kaptan told AFP. “We’ve overcome our fear and learned new things, we’re stronger, more united, more connected to each other,” he said.
“We are not afraid of anything. Hope has somehow returned,” said Sumeyye Belentepe, another student who said she would also go on trial over the protests later in the year. Avni Gundogdu, co-founder of The Parents Solidarity Network which was set up in the wake of the arrests, said some couldn’t get into the court because of the tight security measures in place. “We want justice for our children. They need to be at their desks in university, not in prison,” he told AFP.
