OIAD press release on the double judicial observation mission in Turkey (26–30 May 2025)
The International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger was part of a major international delegation in Turkey from 26 to 30 May 2025 during a hectic week in the courts, with several criminal hearings against lawyers from the Human Rights Committee of the Istanbul Bar (ÇHD) and the President of the Istanbul Bar and his Bar Council.
Represented by its delegates Antonio Fraticelli (Bologna), Franck Heurtrey (Lyon) and Charles Ohlgusser (Paris), the OIAD first attended the opening of the new trial of Selçuk Kozağaçlı, Özgür Yılmaz, Oya Aslan and Barkın Timtik at the Çağlayan Court in Istanbul on Tuesday 27 May 2025, all four of whom are long-term prisoners, and Güçlü Sevimli and Gülvin Aydın, prosecuted for ‘terrorist propaganda’, whose previous convictions were overturned by the 3rd Chamber of the Court of Cassation.
After a tense hearing, the case was adjourned until 21 October 2025.
On Wednesday 28 May 2025, the criminal trial brought by the Turkish authorities against the President of the Istanbul Bar Association, Ibrahim Kaboğlu, and members of his Bar Council for ‘disseminating misleading information’ and ‘terrorist propaganda’ began in the Silivri prison complex.
This is the criminal part of the proceedings against the Istanbul Bar Association, which led to the dismissal of the Bar President and the Bar Council on 21 March 2025.In both cases, lawyers are accused of exercising their freedom of expression by seeking, on behalf of the Istanbul Bar Association, respect for international humanitarian law and the opening of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two Kurdish journalists in Syria who were targeted by a Turkish drone attack.
All members of the Bar Council expressed their views at the hearing, except for one who did not appear because he had not been summoned. This failure to summon him made it possible to adjourn the trial until 9 and 10 September 2025.
At the same time, Council member Firat Epözdemir’s trial was held on Thursday 29 May 2025 before the Istanbul Çağlayan Court.
The lawyer was arrested on 23 January 2025 upon his return from the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and held in pre-trial detention for alleged membership in 2015 of a WhatsApp group linked to the PKK.
The OIAD was delighted that, following an afternoon hearing during which Firat Epözdemir and his lawyers demonstrated the groundlessness of the charges against him, he was able to regain his freedom.
