In July, 2 aggravated prison sentences were approved against me. In 2008, a conviction based on a slanderer’s claim that ‘she watched the lynching from the pavement’ has no place in law or humanity.
The person who made a false statement against me is one of the accused in the lynching case. It is clear that he made a statement against me in order to save himself. Moreover, he was rewarded and given a reduced sentence only because of the false statement he made against me.
How this unjust and unlawful judgement was reached is a lesson for the entire legal community and all those who have been subjected to injustice.
On 8 March 2018, I was detained at Lebanon’s Rafic Hariri Airport due to a problem with my passport. After 6 days of detention in Lebanon, I was forcibly brought to Turkey on a private plane by Turkish authorities in an unofficial and illegitimate manner, with my hands handcuffed behind my back, blindfolded and with a sack over my head.
As a result of secret agreements made with Lebanon, my transfer to Turkey was kept completely secret. My family, loved ones, acquaintances and strangers who heard about my disappearance searched for me everywhere for six months. My father, who could not bear it, passed away in agony before he learnt that I was alive.
When I was taken off the plane, my mouth was taped so no one could hear me, and the first thing they did to me was to strip me naked!
I was kept in a tiny cell in this secret torture centre for six months. In addition to days and months of psychological torture, I was subjected to physical torture, electricity, electroshock, harassment, attempted rape, drowning in water, being kept in a coffin, being made to listen to the voices of people being tortured… As a result of all kinds of torture, I lost 25 kilos. 898 scars appeared on my body. For 6 months I was deprived of fresh air, sunlight and human faces. There was not a single thing of humanity there!
They knew my family and that I had revolutionary-socialist thoughts. For six months they wanted me to give up my thoughts and make false statements about people I did not know.
The fact that I had lost my sister, brother and aunt in the revolutionary struggle, and my imprisonment in the democratic struggle was enough for me to be seen as a “potential target” in the eyes of the torturers. Although I lost my health in that torture chamber, I did not accept what they wanted, to make false statements about people I did not know. I tried to endure and resist with all my cells all the degrading tortures, pains, the environment of loneliness and nothingness that was tried to be created. That was my “crime”!
Yes, I resisted despite the wounds inflicted on my body and soul. I struggled hard not to lose my brain and consciousness. On 29 August 2018, in the evening hours, when the torturers secretly abandoned me in an open field in Ankara, I was in a state of ill health. Immediately after the torturers left me in that field, which I did not know at all, I was taken into custody by the Ankara Political Branch Police on a so-called tip-off. When I appeared before the prosecutor and the judge after three days in custody, they did not even look at my face, despite the tortures I had experienced and the obvious wounds on my body! I was arrested on the basis of an unknown denunciation, without being asked any questions about how I came to that field, why I came there, and my almost dehumanised state.
It would be more accurate to say, “There was a denunciation fiction that could have been a pretext for my arrest”.
While I was under arrest, I was taken to SEGBIS in connection with a lynching incident in 2008. I was being tried on the basis of a slanderer’s statement that I had watched the lynching of a rapist in a neighbourhood of Istanbul. In the first court I attended in connection with this trial, which was not based on a single concrete piece of evidence other than the slanderer’s false and abstract statement, a decision was made to “release” me.
However, I was under arrest in a “bogus” file opened after the torturers left me in the field in Ankara. After a long process, the two files were merged.
My trial continued through the lynching file in Istanbul. The Ankara indictment, that is, the indictment related to my presence in the field, was ignored. Thus, my being brought there by torturers and the 6-month period stolen from my life were also ignored. I was detained for about 3.5 years. During this time, I described the torture verbally in all my courts and in writing in my criminal complaints. Despite this, torture was not investigated and a decision of “no prosecution” was issued. While there was not a single reason for my continued detention, I was punished instead of the torturers.
I was the only person arrested in the “lynching” case of about 20 people in Istanbul. After 3.5 years of imprisonment, I was sentenced to 2 aggravated life sentences in June 2021 and released with a “do not leave the residence” order. Even the committee that sentenced me to two aggravated life sentences knew that this sentence was not fair. How many people are released from the trial where they received two aggravated life sentences?
The first period of my imprisonment was without electronic handcuffs. After a while, I was placed under house arrest for 2.5 years with electronic handcuffs. While under house arrest, psychological torture continued under the name of “supervision”. The electronic handcuffs on my feet were changed at least 15 times. My house was raided five times. No criminal offence was found.
Ankara Electronic Handcuff Monitoring Centre called and “checked” me at all hours of the day and night. Officers from the Probation Office came to my house several times on the grounds of “control handcuff replacement and signature”. Police officers from the police station were at my door even at 5 o’clock in the morning. I was constantly harassed by an armoured vehicle passing in front of the house.
Even in order to go to the hospital, I had to inform all the above-mentioned institutions, especially the court authorisation. I could not go to the hospital when the court did not give permission. Although I did not violate house arrest even once, the series of unlawful acts did not end. On 6 February 2024, my house was raided on the grounds of the incident at Çağlayan Courthouse. I was detained and arrested with a conspiracy. I am still under unlawful arrest despite the fact that there are no actual and factual conditions for the accusations against me under the conditions of strictly supervised house arrest.
– 6 months of torture,
– 3.5 years imprisonment,
– 2.5 years house arrest,
– Arrest again on trumped-up charges,
-That the other was upheld while imprisonment continued…
And moreover, while the possibility of my release from the file in which I was last arrested was so high, the reason why mine was brought forward and quickly approved while there were many files before the Supreme Court of Justice is clear. They want to destroy me because I exposed the torture and the torture centre, because they could not achieve their goal, intimidate and silence me.
They realised they cannot silence me. They regret not killing me.
They want me to be completely invisible. They are trying in vain!
Even someone who doesn’t understand the law knows that “he watched the lynching from the pavement” cannot be rewarded with 2 aggravated life sentences, concrete evidence is required.
It is very clear that this decision is a political decision aimed at covering up torture. This judgement has no legal equivalent.
I am being punished with abstract allegations, while the torture is concrete with the wounds on my body, doctor’s reports and statements that I have explained in every detail.
They want to bury me alive in the grave!
Sentencing me to solitary confinement for life is a continuation of torture. Torture is a crime against humanity. Torture has no amnesty, no statute of limitations.
Let it not be forgotten that the truth does not fit in the grave.
Justice is the gravedigger of all tyrannies.
Injustice is the cutting of our lifeblood.
I call on all law defenders, our people, journalists, intellectuals, artists, writers… all democratic segments to speak out against this injustice. With our unity, we will create justice.
I send my love and greetings to everyone who stands with me and contributes.
They can bury me alive in the grave, but they cannot separate me from you…
With the belief that we will win justice and freedom… Stay well and in hope.
(Note: I will not leave your letters unanswered as long as they arrive).
1 No’lu F Tipi Hapishanesi
Kandıra-KOCAELİ
A12-34
AYTEN ÖZTÜRK
