Turkey: arrested lawyer dies on the 238th day of her hunger strike

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Supporters protest against the Turkish government after Ebru Timtik's death

Imprisoned Turkish lawyer Ebru Timtik died after 238 days on hunger strike. "Ebru Timtik, a member of our law firm, died a martyr's death," wrote the law firm Halkin Hukuk Bürou on Twitter on Thursday evening. An Istanbul court had sentenced the 42-year-old to several years in prison on charges of terrorism. She went on a hunger strike in February to enforce a fair trial.

As friends of Timtik said, the lawyer only weighed 30 kilograms before her death. In the end she hadn't consumed anything but sugar water, herbal tea and vitamins. Colleagues had last warned of the poor condition of the lawyer. Her death sparked outrage among opposition politicians in Turkey.

"Ebru Timtik was sent to his death before our very eyes," wrote Sezgin Tanrikulu, a politician of the social democratic opposition party CHP, on Twitter. Garo Paylan from the pro-Kurdish HDP tweeted: "Ebru Timtik was massacred by the tyrants in power!"

Timtik was arrested in September 2018 and found guilty the following year by an Istanbul court, along with 17 other lawyers, of "establishing and leading a terrorist group" and "membership in a terrorist group".

The court did not want to release Timtik

Specifically, Timtik was charged with having connections to the banned left-wing extremist DHKP-C as a member of a left group. The DHKP-C has committed itself to several fatal attacks in Turkey in the past.

Timtik was sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison - an appeals court upheld the sentence. In July, a court in Istanbul refused to release Timtik, despite a medical report that concluded that her health did not allow her to be detained.

Timtik was last treated with his lawyer colleague and Aytac Ünsal because of her state of health in Istanbul hospitals. The president of the Izmir Bar Association, Özkan Yücel, said that her condition there had deteriorated because of the use of "torture methods" such as constant lighting.

mfh / AFP