8 LGBTI+ activists who participated in 22nd Istanbul Pride March face trial

12/12/2024 | Writer: Kaos GL

Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee announced that the first hearing will be held on May 8, 2025: “We call on all human rights defenders to embrace the case against this organized, systematic hatred”

Photo: Tuğçe Yılmaz/bianet

Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week Committee announced that a lawsuit was filed against 8 LGBTI+ activists who participated in the 22nd Istanbul Pride March on June 30th. In its statement, the Committee stated that the indictment used the words “so-called pride march” and that the lawsuit was filed on the grounds of “opposition to the Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations”.

The first hearing of the case will be held on May 8, 2025 at the Anadolu Courthouse 76th Criminal Court of First Instance. In a call for solidarity shared on social media, the committee said:

"The state and the legal system, which could not find the perpetrator of Ahmet Yıldız, characterized Hande Buse Şeker's murder as a simple form of murder, banned access to hormones, and constantly targeted LGBTI+ youth, did not get tired of suing us every year for ‘participating in unlawful assembly and demonstration’. After the 22nd Istanbul Pride March on June 30, 2024, 11 people, including 3 minors, were detained in handcuffs and released after hours of testimony. We learned that the state, which declared us an 'illegal group' in its banning decision on the same day, could not prevent our march with its thousands of bans and resource power, and filed a lawsuit against 8 people, calling our march a 'so-called pride march'. The case will be held on May 8, 2025 at 10:20 at Istanbul Anatolian (Kartal) Courthouse. We want you to know that as long as you ignore us, as long as you try to criminalize us, as long as you try to intimidate us with your legal harassment, we will continue to march and exist with all our voices shouting 'WE ARE HERE, MY LOVE'. We will march again next year. You will not be able to keep up. We stand by our friends. We call on all human rights defenders to embrace the case against this organized, systematic hatred."

Tags: human rights