Lawyers are embarking on a watch for the law and justice

Lawyers have started to hold a watch today for their colleagues who have been detained in the operation to silence our paper, Cumhuriyet Newspaper Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, Cumhuriyet Foundation Management Board member Mustafa Kemal Güngör and Cumhuriyet Newspaper lawyer Bülent Utku.

Lawyers will hold a Justice Watch in front of the Themis statue at the entrance to door C of Çağlayan Judicial Complex every Thursday between the hours of 11.00 and 13.00. Ata Yazıcıoğlu, Attorney-at-Law, said that they had embarked on the Justice Watch as lawyers so as to stand up for democracy, basic rights and freedoms and the rule of law. Yazıcıoğlu, recalling that the indictment was drafted following five months spent in detention, continued, ‘The fact that the indictment has finally been drafted and submitted to the court has not rendered the “Justice Watch” unnecessary but, on the contrary, has made it more pressing. We will not stand in silence and remain passive in the face of this lawlessness. We will hold the Justice Watch, which at the time we announced it was to be held with the demand that the investigation be completed immediately, every Thursday until our colleagues are released.’ Kemal Aytaç, Attorney-at-Law, on the other hand, stating that they would hold a watch every Thursday in support of the right to a trial and defence, said, ‘April 5^th is Lawyers’ Day, but under today’s conditions we are unable to have a lawyers’ day worth celebrating in this country.’