CHP’s Altıok visits Silivri

CHP Izmir member of parliament Zeynep Altıok visited CHP MP Enis Berberoğlu in Maltepe Prison and our newspaper’s Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, our newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, our newspaper’s reporter Ahmet Şık and businessman Osman Kavala in Silivri Prison. Commenting on the ongoing trials, Altıok said, “Those who have shelved the law make detentions to order and also release to order. You suddenly see Deniz Yücel, who had been held in solitary confinement for a year in the absence of an indictment and guilt, being released with no hearing needed even for show. Who can give account for the one year stolen from a person’s life? The law is not being operated. Our intellectuals and journalists are being held hostage under practices and accusations that are contrary, not just to the law, but to reason, logic and common sense. The palace rulership is endeavouring through the state of emergency and decrees with the force of law to bestow legitimacy on its unlawful practices by targeting all politicians, intellectuals, creative people, teachers, workers and representatives of democratic mass organisations who defend freedom and democracy in Turkey so as to create a society that does not think and breathes under instruction.”

 “They step up the oppression”

 Altıok commented, “This is actually a harbinger of the rulership’s rapid collapse. They are afraid and, as their fear increases, they step up the oppression and tyranny. Journalist Ahmet Şık, who has been detained for a full 427 days, and Akın Atalay and Murat Sabuncu, who have been detained for 487 days, should be released at the hearing on 9 March. Consequently, in opposition to injustice, lawlessness and darkness, all who stand on the side of rights, the law and justice must lend an ear to the Cumhuriyet trial and must not leave our journalists who are struggling for freedom alone on 9 March.”

No indictment for four months

With reference to Osman Kavala, Altıok said, “What is taking place is a process of lawlessness. Our demand is for the law to be operated. If a crime is in existence, it should be declared and an indictment drafted, however, it is the same old process as with the human rights defenders, Deniz Yücel and the recent groundless detentions of countless journalists. There is a never-changing process in terms of the fabricated accusations, aberrant indictments and charges raised. So it is that for a full four months the indictment has not even been drafted.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/936890/CHP_li_Altiok_tan_Silivri_ziyareti__Cumhuriyet_e_sahip_cikin.html