Thursday, 29 october 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The final hearing of the trial against the human rights lawyer member of the Istanbul Bar Association, Levent Pi\u015fkin, will take place on November 18th, 2020.<\/p>\n Levent Pi\u015fkin was detained on November 14th, 2016 during a police raid at his home in Istanbul. Some Turkish media have alleged that Levent Piskin served as an intermediary between his client Selahattin Demirtas and the German magazine Der Spiegel for propaganda purposes. The lawyer explained that two journalists from the magazine Der Spiegel had contacted him asking him to send them a letter from Demirtas concerning his conditions of detention. After making a statement to the prosecutor\u2019s office in Bursa, Levent Pi\u015fkin was released after three days under judicial supervision.<\/p>\n In April 2017, Levent Pi\u015fkin was, along with 11 others, charged by the Bursa public prosecutor with \u201cmembership of a terrorist organisation\u201d and \u201cmaking propaganda for the organisation\u201d. Levent Pi\u015fkin is accused of having visited his client Selahattin Demirta\u015f in prison using his lawyer\u2019s identity card, but also of being a member of a WhatsApp group of the HDP.<\/p>\n At the last hearing of the case in September 2020, the prosecutor reiterated the remarks made in the indictment, asking that lawyer Levent Pi\u015fkin be punished for \u201cpropaganda in favour of the organisation\u201d and \u201cmembership of the organisation\u201d under Article 314\/2 of the Turkish Penal Code.\u00a0 The evidence and statements presented by the defence at the hearings in almost three years of trial are not reflected in the final opinion of the prosecutor.<\/p>\n The OIAD believes<\/strong>\u00a0that the judicial harassment suffered by Levent Pi\u015fkin is related to his legitimate activities as a lawyer.<\/p>\n The OIAD would like to remind<\/strong>\u00a0the Turkish authorities that under the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (1990):<\/p>\n \u201cLawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients\u2019 causes as a result of discharging their functions\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Principle No. 18).<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; (b) are able to travel and to consult with their clients freely both within their own country and abroad; and (c) shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Principle No. 16).<\/p>\n Article 6\u00a71 of the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) guarantees the right to a fair trial:<\/p>\n \u201cIn the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. [\u2026] \u00bb<\/em><\/p>\n The OIAD therefore urges<\/strong>\u00a0the Turkish authorities to drop all charges against Levent Pi\u015fkin.<\/p>\n The OIAD would like to express<\/strong>\u00a0its full support to the lawyer Levent Pi\u015fkin and will pay particular attention to the hearing on 18 November and its follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"listing_category":[50],"event_category":[],"service_category":[],"rental_category":[],"classifieds_category":[],"listing_feature":[],"region":[79,1915],"class_list":["post-11840","listing","type-listing","status-publish","hentry","listing_category-threatened","region-europe","region-turkiye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/11840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11840"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/11840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21600,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/11840\/revisions\/21600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_category?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"service_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service_category?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"rental_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rental_category?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"classifieds_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classifieds_category?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"listing_feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_feature?post=11840"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=11840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}