"The Issue Isn’t Underwear, It’s Equating Courthouses with Prisons"

Attorney Leyla Han Tüzel told bianet about the “Female attorneys will wear suitable underwear to go through the sensitive door without beeping, if need be,” argument between lawyers and the deputy chief prosecutor in Bakırköy Courthouse.  

Han Tüzel emphasized that the actual problem is treating courthouses like prisons. Expressing that the underwear debate went beyond the example given about entering prisons, Han Tüzel said: “We object to the deputy chief prosecutor’s logic equating courthouses with prisons.”

Recounting that attorney Yeşinil Yeşilyurt was today manhandled by the police and taken out of the courthouse, Han Tüzel said they filed a complaint to Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office about the two police officers involved.

Stating they do not accept the protocol the Istanbul Bar Association signed with Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Han Tüzel criticized judges and prosecutors who accepted the body search procedure. “We do not demand to be on equal footing with bad practices. Let them also object to body searches and protect their professional dignity,” she spoke.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ömer Faruk Aydıner halted the body search procedure for attorneys in Bakırköy Courthouse for the day, following the debates. Attorneys started to enter the courthouse just by showing identity cards, without getting their bags searched.

“We go into prisons with non-beeping underwear”

As Attorney Leyla Han Tüzel was preparing to go into Bakırköy Courthouse today, police asked her to leave her bag at the searching device. When Han Tüzel responded that it was not right for them to ask her to leave her bag when she hadn’t gone through the X-ray and beeped, she was asked to leave the courthouse if she would not be allowing a body search. Han Tüzel described the argument that took place after she went over to the two police officers and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Aydıner as follows:

“First we engaged in our classic arguments again; we explained why we don’t want to go through the X-ray device and why we don’t want to leave our bags.

“At one point in the argument, I told the deputy chief prosecutor that they were treating courthouses like prisons and said: ‘we citizens, attorneys and employees wear non-beeping underwear when we go into prison. That is what you’re turning the courthouse into. I don’t want to go through the same thing every day.”

“The response I got was, ‘if you don’t want to beep, you’re going to have to wear non-beeping underwear.’ The argument lasted for a while and then we left.

“We found out that after my incident, our fellow attorney Yeşinil Yeşilyurt had been manhandled by the police and taken out of the courthouse, so we went up to the same deputy chief prosecutor again.

“I repeated my comment to the deputy chief prosecutor that he was treating courthouses like prisons and reiterated our criticisms from our previous conversation. He in turn repeated his words saying, ‘Yes, you said you wear non-beeping underwear when you go into prison. And I said if that is how you interpret it, you’ve got it right. You are going to go through the X-ray device until you no longer beep and if you don’t want to beep, you’re going to have to wear non-beeping underwear.’

“When the arguments went on, the deputy chief prosecutor halted the body search procedure in Bakırköy Courthouse. Attorneys went in showing their identity cards and without getting their bags checked. Of course, this is what they’re doing today. We don’t know what they’ll do tomorrow.”

“We do not accept the Istanbul Bar Association’s protocol”

Han Tüzel continued her statement as follows:

“The deputy chief prosecutor wants people to go into courthouses the way they go into prisons. That is the logic we are opposing. This is a courthouse; it’s my place of work. We told the chief prosecutor too, why did they accept for prosecutors and judges to be searched? We do not demand to be on equal footing with bad practices. Let them also object to body searches and protect their professional dignity.

“Protecting our workspaces, the dignity of the lawyerly profession, and our right to hide our professional secrets, we do not accept the Istanbul Bar Association’s protocol, we see it as a very backwards protocol. Besides, the procedure at Bakırköy Courthouse isn’t even the Istanbul Bar Association’s protocol.” (ÇT/PU)

 Click here to read this article in Turkish.