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Amnesty International on Friday welcomed the acquittal of 45 Saturday Mothers members, ending their seven-year-long legal ordeal. The protesters had faced trial for participating in their 700th peaceful vigil, which was banned and violently dispersed by police in August 2018. Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, called the prosecution “baseless” and stated that it “should have never seen the light of day.” The acquittal marks the conclusion of a prolonged legal battle that could have resulted in up to three years of imprisonment for each defendant.
The Saturday Mothers are relatives of individuals who forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and 1990s in Türkiye. Inspired by Argentina’s Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, they have held weekly vigils in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square since 1995, demanding justice for their missing loved ones. Their 700th vigil on August 25, 2018, was met with excessive police force, including tear gas and water cannons. Authorities arrested 46 people, later indicting them in 2020 for “attending illegal meetings and marches without weapons and not dispersing despite warning.” The trial began in 2021.
Since the 2018 crackdown, authorities have maintained a ban on gatherings in Galatasaray Square, surrounding it with police barriers and riot officers. Amnesty International urged Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya to immediately lift all restrictions on the Square and allow the Saturday Mothers to resume their peaceful protests. The organization emphasized that the group has become “a powerful symbol of the importance of peaceful protest” and vowed to continue defending their right to assemble.
The Turkish authorities’ ban on the 700th vigil of the Saturday Mothers and the subsequent violent crackdown violate the fundamental right to peaceful assembly, which is protected under both the Turkish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Türkiye is a party. The repression of the Saturday Mothers is emblematic of the broader restrictions on freedom of assembly in Türkiye. Despite repeated bans and arrests, the Saturday Mothers have remained resolute in their struggle for justice.
The post Amnesty International welcomes Türkiye acquittal of ‘Saturday Mothers’ after years-long legal battle appeared first on JURIST - News.
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The Saturday Mothers are relatives of individuals who forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and 1990s in Türkiye. Inspired by Argentina’s Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, they have held weekly vigils in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square since 1995, demanding justice for their missing loved ones. Their 700th vigil on August 25, 2018, was met with excessive police force, including tear gas and water cannons. Authorities arrested 46 people, later indicting them in 2020 for “attending illegal meetings and marches without weapons and not dispersing despite warning.” The trial began in 2021.
Since the 2018 crackdown, authorities have maintained a ban on gatherings in Galatasaray Square, surrounding it with police barriers and riot officers. Amnesty International urged Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya to immediately lift all restrictions on the Square and allow the Saturday Mothers to resume their peaceful protests. The organization emphasized that the group has become “a powerful symbol of the importance of peaceful protest” and vowed to continue defending their right to assemble.
The Turkish authorities’ ban on the 700th vigil of the Saturday Mothers and the subsequent violent crackdown violate the fundamental right to peaceful assembly, which is protected under both the Turkish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), to which Türkiye is a party. The repression of the Saturday Mothers is emblematic of the broader restrictions on freedom of assembly in Türkiye. Despite repeated bans and arrests, the Saturday Mothers have remained resolute in their struggle for justice.
The post Amnesty International welcomes Türkiye acquittal of ‘Saturday Mothers’ after years-long legal battle appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.