Turkish justice sometimes gives the impression of attending a show that would be funny if the object was not as serious. Friday April 18, in room 27-a of the court of Çaglayan, in Istanbul, 99 defendants, most of the students, were called upon to defend themselves against accusations of participation in unauthorized demonstrations, which occurred after the arrest, on March 19, of the city mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, main rival and bane of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Among the many people present, often standing or seated in the spans, three reporters and four photojournalists, including Bülent Kiliç, winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2014, and Yasin Akgül, of the France-Presse agency, which covered these protests, were also judged.
From the first minutes of the hearing, one of the journalists' lawyers, Veysel OK, recalled the fanciful charges, concocted by a parody of justice. Obliged to explain the presence of his customers to the demonstrations, he recalled, very seriously, that “Journalists cover demonstrations, [qu’]They are paid for that [et qu’]They were there as journalists. ”
You have 76.31% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Source: Lemonde