Under Investigation, İBB Trial Lawyers Hüseyin Ersöz and Enes Ermaner to Give Statements

Lawyers Hüseyin Ersöz and Enes Hikmet Ermaner are set to give statements to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office over an investigation arising from their work as defense attorneys in İBB proceedings.

Their lawyer, Gamze Pamuk, said the investigation concerns defenses made in court and legal explanations the two lawyers gave to the public. She argued that authorities had not used the special procedure required under Turkey’s Attorneyship Law and had failed to obtain the necessary permission.

Pamuk said the lawyers reject treating legal objections raised as part of the right to defense, and later shared with the public, as grounds for a criminal investigation. “Silencing the defense is also weakening the right to a fair trial and the rule of law,” she said. She added that they would submit their legal objections to prosecutors and continue defending the right to defense, fair trial guarantees and the supremacy of law.

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Silencing the defense is also weakening the right to a fair trial and the rule of law.

In a petition dated Sept. 4, Ersöz said the accusations stemmed from an interview he gave to BirGün TV on Aug. 17. He said investigators accused him of insulting and threatening judges serving on the first panel of Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court, but maintained that he made no such statements. “The accusation is completely baseless,” he said.

Ersöz said the interview addressed matters he had already raised in written and oral defenses in the case formerly handled by the closed Istanbul 40th High Criminal Court. Those defenses appear in SEGBİS recordings and petitions submitted to the case file, he said. He also argued that citing rulings by the 8th and 16th Criminal Chambers of Turkey’s Court of Cassation was a routine part of challenging allegedly unlawful court decisions and courtroom practices. His petition said no complaint had been filed by the relevant court panel over the similar statements he made during the proceedings.

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The accusation is completely baseless.