Turkey's Supreme Court on Thursday (September 3rd) ordered the release of a jailed lawyer on hunger strike, a week after the death of a detained sister who had stopped eating for 238 days.
Lawyer Aytac Unsal must be "
immediately released
" in view of the "
danger to his life posed by his continued imprisonment,
" the Supreme Court said in its verdict.
Read also: Turkey: lawyer dies in prison after 238 days of hunger strike
Aytac Unsal, 32, has been on a hunger strike for 213 days.
Sentenced last year to more than 10 years in prison for "
belonging to a terrorist organization
", he began a hunger strike in February with his colleague Ebru Timtik to demand a new trial.
Ebru Timtik's death last week on the 238th day of his hunger strike sparked a stir in the country and condemnations from human rights organizations.
Mr. Unsal is a member of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers, specializing in the defense of politically sensitive cases.
The Turkish authorities accuse this association of being linked to the radical Marxist-Leninist organization DHKP-C, a group which has committed several attacks and is described as "
terrorist
" by Ankara and its Western allies.
An "unfair" trial
An Istanbul court refused in July to release Ebru Timtik and Aytac Unsal, despite a medical report indicating that their state of health no longer allowed them to remain in prison.
A similar request was also filed in August with the Constitutional Court, without success.
Instead of being released, Ebru Timtik and Mr. Unsal were transferred to two different hospitals in July.
After Timtik's death, the Istanbul bar denounced the violations of the right to a fair trial suffered by the two lawyers.
Replacement of the judges who had ordered their release, verdict announced without the defense being able to express itself properly: their trial was totally “
unfair
”, the Istanbul bar was indignant.
The decision to release Mr. Unsal coincides with a visit to Turkey by the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Robert Spano since Thursday.
This trip by Mr. Spano to Turkey, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, drew criticism because of the human rights violations alleged against the Turkish government.
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