TURKEY: OIAD attends hearing of colleague Özum Burgun in Diyarbakir in may 2024

Gaspard Lindon, lawyer at the Bar in Paris and delegate of the International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger (OIAD), travelled to Diyarbakir on May 1^st alongside Françoise Cotta, member of ASF-DS and associate of the OIAD.

Özum Burgun, whose trial was held on 2 May 2024 at the Diyarbakir court, was one of 52 people taken into custody on 25 April 2023 as part of a wave of arrests launched by the Turkish authorities in twenty-one provinces, including Diyarbakir. Alongside her were lawyers Burhan Arta, Serhat Hezer and Şerzan Yelboğa, as well as human rights defenders, journalists, artists and community activists, who were arrested and taken into custody.

This operation was launched 3 weeks before the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, emphasising the particularly tense and hostile political context towards the Kurdish population in Turkey.

Ms Burgun had been accused of being involved in conspiratorial activities within the PKK. She was finally acquitted on 2 May by the Diyarbakir Court.

The International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger thanks Gaspard Lindon and Françoise Cotta, who travelled to Diyarbakir as part of this crucial mission.

The mission report is available on the OIAD website.