Urgent action letter concerning arbitrary detention and long-term imprisonment of lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal
/The Turkey Litigation Support Project (TLSP), together with 17 prominent lawyers' and human rights organisations, sent an urgent action letter (available here) to the UN Special Rapporteurs expressing serious concerns regarding arbitrary detention and long-term imprisonment of lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal in violation of fair trial principles and their right to freedom of expression. When the letter was sent on 18 August 2020, Timtik and Ünsal were on hunger strike since 2 February 2020 in demand for a fair trial. The TLSP, together with a group of lawyers’ rights organisations, previously submitted another urgent action letter on 20 May 2019, which described further instances of what seems to be a systematic practice of persecuting lawyers in order to silence and intimidate human rights defenders and those critical of the Turkish government.
The urgent action letter requests the Special Rapporteurs to urge the Turkish authorities to;
give Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal the opportunity to await the outcome of their appeal in freedom and facilitate their immediate release as currently their lives are further endangered in light of the hospital and prison conditions in Turkey during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
drop all criminal charges against Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, to stop all forms of harassment, including judicial harassment, against these individuals as well as other lawyers and human rights defenders in Turkey, and allow them to perform their professional and lawful functions without intimidation or improper interference.
respect and ensure the independence of the judiciary by law and practice and to prevent judges, prosecutors and lawyers from suffering undue interferences.
comply with the provisions of the ICCPR, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and other international instruments on the protection and promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms.
The letter is endorsed by Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (Canada), Consiglio Nazionale Forense (CNF) (Italy), Lawyers for Lawyers (Netherlands), Defense Sans Frontiere-Avocats Solidaire ( DSF-AS) (France), İstanbul Bar Association (Turkey), Swiss Democratic Lawyers (Switzerland), Rotterdam Bar Association (Netherlands), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) (Brussels), Republikanischer Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein e. V., Berlin (Germany), Avocat.e.s Européennes Démocrates / European Democratic Lawyers (AED/EDL), Ordre des Avocats de Genève / Geneva Bar Association (Switzerland), London Legal Group (United Kingdom), Lyon Bar Association (France), Ravenna Bar Association (Italy), Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği / Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) (Turkey), European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) (Germany), and the Law Society of England and Wales (United Kingdom).
