FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Ferhat Tüzer and Berna Yılmaz, two of the three young people who displayed a banner saying "We want free education, and we will get it" during the "Romani meeting" were taken into detention, the third person, Utku Aykar, was released.

The Romani meeting was held in Istanbul on 14 March. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a speech at the meeting in front of more than 10,000 visitors.

The three young people were arrested after the display of their banner and taken to court on Wednesday (17 March). Tüzer and Yılmaz were detained upon the prosecutor's request under charges of "membership of an illegal organization" on the grounds of "Youth Associations Federation" being written on the banner as well. Aykar was released.

Legal association is supposed to be an 'illegal organization'

The People's Law Office demanded to release the young people from detention immediately. The Law Office explained that both the police and the prosecutor assessed the press release as a "crime", the legal "Youth Associations Federation" was evaluated as an "illegal organization" and the slogan about free education was seen as a "slogan of an illegal organization". The Law Office furthermore emphasized that the court approved of all points.

"Government's democracy and judiciary's independency pretended"

The People's Law Office indicated that before the background of this incident the democracy of the government and the independence of the judiciary are just pretended. The Office evaluated the decision for detention as an "unofficial declaration of martial law". (TK/VK)