04/01/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
12 students, who were exposed to police violence at Boğaziçi University on March 21 due to carrying LGBTI+ flag, were acquitted.
12 students, who were taken into custody while they were trying to support their friends indicted due to carrying rainbow flags at the entry of Boğaziçi University, and who were sued due to violation the Law no 2911 on Meeting and Demonstrations, were acquitted.
Attorneys Özlem Burçin Şahin, Baran Albayrak, İrem Yener, Eylem Kılıç and Sevda Nur Bayram participated in the 9th trial heard today at the İstanbul 24th Penal Court of First Instance.
The prosecutor repeated his final opinion demanding to punish the students.
In brief, the attorneys stated that the students who were detained at different times were gathered within the context of the same file, that there were mistake of facts in the indictment, and that the expert report contained many evaluations by exceeding its authority. And they remarked that the export report should not be taken as a basis for the verdict.
Attorneys reminded that there were no legal basis for detention of the students who were walking with rainbow flags, and neither walking on the road nor the rainbow flag constituted a crime. They also emphasized that the indictment included the protest of students against Melih Bulu, and underlined that protesting Melih Bulu wasn’t illegal and didn’t constitute a crime either. Noting that one of the detained students suffered a burst eyebrow as a result of police violence, the attorneys reminded the positive obligations of the state to ensure the exercise of the right to protest and demonstrate.
Concluding that the legal elements of the crime didn’t constitute the judge, returned an acquittal for 12 students separately.
They had been detained while protesting the detentions
A student, who unfurled a rainbow flag by going up to the roof of the South campus entrance, had been subjected to a disciplinary proceeding during Boğaziçi resistance.
And the students had demanded to protest the investigation on March 25, 2021, on the day the discipline committee met together. However, four students were taken into custody while walking from North campus to the South campus with rainbow flags. Then eight more students, who reacted against the detentions, were taken into custody at the North campus entrance.
It was stated that the students “didn’t cover their flags despite warnings, insisted on marching in a body and didn’t obey the social distancing rules” within the scope of the indictment prepared against 12 students. It was claimed that the students on trial were included in “the group marching with LGBT flags”.
It was also remarked that an examination of the “archive records of terror” had been also carried out, but nothing could have been found, in the indictment.
The trial of students began in June 2021. The judge and the prosecutor changed twice during the trial. In his final opinion, claiming that students are proven guilty as charged, the third prosecutor demanded to be sentenced up to three years in prison for 12 students on the grounds of “violating Law no. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstration”.
Tags: human rights, education
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