A human rights lawyer on hunger strike in a Turkish prison to demand a fair trial for herself and colleagues has died, an attorney’s group said.
Ebru Timtik, 42, died in an Istanbul hospital late on Thursday, the Progressive Lawyers’ Association said. She had been fasting for 238 days.
The lawyer and 17 of her colleagues were accused of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front, a militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.
Timtik was convicted in March last year and sentenced to a prison term of 13 years and six months.
Her case was under review by an appeals court.
Timtik started the hunger strike in February to protest alleged unfair proceedings during the trial, along with another colleague, Aytac Unsal, who is reported to be in a critical condition.
Opposition parties have long questioned the impartiality and independence of the nation’s courts under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule, while lawyers’ groups reported several flaws during the trial.
The lawyers’ complaints included the removal of judges who had initially ordered the lawyers’ release from pretrial detention and the use of anonymous witnesses who testified against them.
On Friday, police tried to prevent a crowd of her supporters from gathering outside the Istanbul Bar Association headquarters for a memorial, while riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to block a protest march, the Evrensel newspaper reported.
At least one lawyer was detained, the paper said.
“Ebru Timtik is immortal” and “Aytac Unsal is our honor,” Evrensel cited the mourners as chanting.
The European Commission’s European Western Balkans spokesman Peter Stano said the EU is “deeply saddened” by Timtik’s death.
“Ebru Timtik’s hunger strike for a fair trial and its tragic outcome painfully illustrate the urgent need for the Turkish authorities to credibly address the human rights situation in the country and the serious shortcomings observed in the Turkish judiciary,” Stano said.
“A strong and independent legal profession, along with an independent judiciary is a core principle of a fair justice system,” he said.
Europe’s democracy and human rights body, the Council of Europe — of which Turkey is a member — called on the country to “restore and uphold” the role of lawyers as human rights defenders.
“Ms. Timtik’s death is a tragic illustration of the human suffering caused by a judicial system in Turkey that has turned into a tool to silence lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic said.
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