19/02/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
The first hearing of the lawsuit filed against ten people who were detained while trying to make a press statement at the Eskişehir Pride March was held. The defendants stated that the complainant police officers threatened to lose them in custody.
The trials regarding the LGBTI+ Pride Marches continue. The first hearing of the lawsuit filed against ten people who were detained in Eskişehir in 2024 in front of the Ulus Monument in front of the Ulus Monument before they could make a press statement, with the allegation of ‘participating in unlawful meetings and marches without weapons and not dispersing spontaneously despite the warning’ was held at Eskişehir 16th Criminal Court of First Instance.
Representatives from Istanbul, Ankara and Eskişehir bar associations, Ankara Rainbow Families Association, IHD Ankara Branch LGBTI+ Commission, LISTAG and MLSA also followed the hearing where the defendants and lawyers were present. Upon the request of the lawyers for the hearing to be held in a bigger courtroom, the hearing was held at the 2nd Assize Court. A large number of plainclothes and uniformed police were waiting in front of the courtroom.
‘I was threatened with rape’
Simay Ada Kart, who is arrested from another case, made the first defence in the hearing that started after the identification. Kart, who connected from Marmara Prison via SEGBİS, underlined that she did not resist or use violence against the police and said the following
"The detention decision itself is an attack on the existence of LGBTIs. We were attacked before the protest even took place. We were not even informed about the banning order. I was subjected to both harassment and violence in detention. I was threatened with disappearance and rape by the complainant police officer in that hall. How could I beat the police while being held in handcuffs for hours?"
‘We go to that area to avoid being killed’
Ceren Leventoğlu, who testified after Kart, identified one of the police officers present in the courtroom as a complainant and stated that he threatened to rape her and to lose her in custody and that they were not given any space to disperse on the day of the incident. Leventoğlu concluded her testimony with the words "Today we are on trial here to give an account of who we had sex with because of our existence ’.
Another defendant Mati, who gave a statement, pointed out that they should change places with the complainants in the hall and said , ‘We are said to have resisted the police, but we did not even have a chance to resist. Even before the protest started, three police officers came behind me and tried to do a police report. When we came to the area, they tortured us and detained us without showing a banning order. When I opened my eyes, they were rubbing my face on the asphalt and when I asked why they were doing this, they said"I will kill you ’. At the door of the police station, the threat of ‘I will kill you, no one will find you’ continued. We go to that area to avoid being killed, we go to that area for the struggle for existence.’
In their defences, the defendants repeated that they were frequently threatened with ‘being killed’ during the detention process, that they were subjected to police violence while trying to exercise their democratic rights and that these were attacks against the existence of LGBTI+ persons. Security Branch and Public Security Branch police officers who attended the hearing as complainants also stated that some of them resisted the defendants by shouting at them during the body search and that they did not accept the allegation of threat of disappearance in custody.
The defendants Ceren Leventoğlu and Simay Ada Kart took the floor against the statements of the complainants and reacted to the situation by stating that the complainants were ‘lying’ in their defence statements.
After the defence statements of the defendants and the statements of the complainants, the lawyers started to make a collective defence. Taking the floor first, lawyer Hasan Çayır demanded the identification of the police officers in the hall and mentioned the historical importance of the Pride Marches. Lawyer Esra Başbakkal also touched upon the ill-treatment of the police officers during the detention with the words "I have seen myself that ill-treatment is tried to be legitimised with the armour of a public officer ’ and drew attention to the need to take action against the police officers for hate crimes.
At the end of the hearing, LGBTI+'s, lawyers and supporters who came to watch the hearing took photographs, and a civilian police officer wanted to take a photo with his phone, and a report was kept as a result of the dispute.
After the completion of the statements and defences, the trial was adjourned to 9 April for the preparation of the opinion on the merits.
Tags: human rights
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