January 6, 2017
The detention of the Doğan Group’s chief judicial adviser, along with a former chief executive officer of the holding, is an act of intimidation by the political power, the Istanbul Bar Association said in a written statement on Jan. 6.
“This detention is an intimidation,” it said, adding that the government was seeking to create its own narrative during the current period.
“In this context, we should mention not only a lawyer’s detention … but also openly [an attack] on the freedom of the press,” read the statement titled ”Law Should Not Be Part of Political Strategies.”
It noted that detained adviser Erem Turgut Yücel had been turned into a suspect in a case that he had been following as a lawyer.
Yücel and former Doğan Group CEO Yahya Üzdiyen were detained at 6 a.m. on Jan. 5 as police searched their houses and offices.
No bar association representatives were present during the searches, the bar said.
It said a decree law under the ongoing state of emergency had lifted an article stipulating that a prosecutor be present during such searches but retained an article stipulating that a representative of the bar be present.
“Thus, such searches are openly against the law,” the statement read.
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http://www.idhae.org/observatoire-fr-page4.1.tur170501.htm (FRANCAIS)
