Lawyer of Turkey’s opposition CHP and party leader Kilicdaroglu detained over alleged Gülen links


nsnbc : Celal Celik, the main lawyer of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) and party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was detained in Ankara as part of an investigation into networks linked to the self-exiled cleric Fetullah Gülen and his networks. Turkey is currently experiencing an alarming wave of arrests of lawyers.

Celal Celik_Turkey_Sep 2017Celik was taken into custody in Turkey’s capital Ankara early September 15. He was detained after the office of Istanbul’s Chief prosecutor opened an investigation against him over alleged links to the so-called Gülen network. Turkey’s AKP government claims that Gülen and the so-called “Fetullah Gülenist Terror Organization – FETÖ” orchestrated the failed 2016 military coup.

Gülen and associates deny the allegations. It is worth noting that an in-depth investigative report presents strong evidence to support that circles within the AKP leadership and Turkey’s intelligence service MIT were involved in “setting up” the coup that may well have been “designed to fail”.

Celal Celik, a former investigation judge of the Supreme Court, had resigned from his post in 2011 in protest against the reorganization of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) following a constitutional amendment that took place in 2010. Following his resignation in protest he became e official lawyer of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s largest opposition party, as well as of party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. He is also a CHP high disciplinary board member.

The CHP’s immediate response was to denounce the detention of Celik as “the abdication of reason”. CHP spokesman Bülent Tezcan said the party would object to the detention of Çelik. “Justice, the law, morality, and conscience cannot accept the fact that a lawyer who is willing to devote his whole career to opposing FETÖ has been arrested as an instrument for further plots. We will object to it loudly,” Tezcan said on September 15.

Slamming the detention, Tezcan said that they anticipate a release soon. “If it is not part of a plot like the recent case of journalists and thinkers, we believe that our friend will be released soon. We hope and expect this,” he added, calling on the judiciary to “act in accordance with the law.” “If that is the case, there is nothing to be afraid of. Our conscience is clear,” Tezcan said.

Arrests and repression against lawyers has become Turkey’s new “normal” after the AKP administration introduced emergency laws following the 2016 “failed coup” that led to a referendum on constitutional change while the country was ruled under emergency laws.

Earlier this week the lawyers of two imprisoned and hunger-striking educators accused of being members of a terrorist organization, have been detained two days before the first hearing of the case. The 17 lawyers from the People’s Law Office (Halkın Hukuk Bürosu) were taken into custody after simultaneous operations on early September 12. Operations and arrests were made across five cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, following a warrant from the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office also accusing the lawyers of “being members of a terrorist organization.”

F/AK – nsnbc 15.09.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/15/lawyer-of-turkeys-opposition-chp-and-party-leader-kilicdaroglu-detained-over-alleged-gulen-links/

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