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Opposition lawmaker visits prison, decries 'pre-emptive punishment' of political detainees
🇹🇷 Turkey /Elections & Politics

Opposition lawmaker visits prison, decries 'pre-emptive punishment' of political detainees

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Opposition lawmaker Utku Çakırözer visited Sincan Prison to meet with several detainees, including a union organizer and students.
  • Çakırözer criticized the prolonged detentions of individuals for their political views and protests, calling it 'pre-emptive punishment.'
  • Among those visited was Başaran Aksu, a union organizer arrested after participating in a protest, and students detained around the time of the NATO summit.

Utku Çakırözer, Deputy Chairman of the YENİ Party and a Member of Parliament for Eskişehir, visited Sincan Prison to meet with several individuals, including union organizer Başaran Aksu, students Şevin Özden and Tuğba Kahraman, and former local officials. Following the visit, Çakırözer strongly criticized the detention conditions and the reasons cited for arrests.

Political prisoners are unfortunately facing pre-emptive punishment due to their views, protests, or expressed opinions.

— Utku ÇakırözerDescribing the situation of detainees during a prison visit.

Çakırözer highlighted the case of Başaran Aksu, an organizer with the Independent Mine Workers' Union, who was arrested despite being released on judicial control just days prior. Aksu had been detained after participating in a protest outside the Ministry of Energy. Çakırözer argued that protesting is a fundamental right and that arresting a union leader for seeking workers' rights is unacceptable, especially when the stated grounds for arrest were social media posts from 2022 and 2024.

The protest right is one of the most fundamental rights according to our Constitution. Especially seeking rights for mine workers, nothing can be more natural than that. Therefore, the arrest of a union executive in this way is unacceptable.

— Utku ÇakırözerCommenting on the arrest of union organizer Başaran Aksu.

The lawmaker also met with students, including Şevin Özden, a third-year Ankara University student detained for over two months. Her detention has caused her to miss crucial academic periods, and further extensions could jeopardize her ability to continue her studies. Çakırözer noted that Özden is not alone, with several other students also held in Sincan Prison.

My greatest happiness here is to have received this news.

— Başaran AksuExpressing relief upon learning that the workers' protest he was involved in yielded positive results.

Çakırözer asserted that political detainees are frequently subjected to prolonged detentions, which he described as "pre-emptive punishment," based on their opinions, protests, or expressed views. He emphasized that such detentions are unlawful and unjust, particularly when individuals are held for exercising their fundamental rights.

There are still citizens who have been detained since June 23 and have been held for more than two months. I visited some of them.

— Utku ÇakırözerHighlighting the ongoing detention of individuals following the NATO summit.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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