Eleven members of organization were dismissed after calls for investigation into journalist deaths
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has expressed strong condemnation of the removal of İbrahim Kaboğlu, president of the Istanbul Bar Association, and its Bar Council’s 10 members.
In a recent statement, the CCBE stood by the bar association’s advocacy for the rule of law and human rights and fully supported Kaboğlu, the Bar Council’s ten members, and all Turkish lawyers facing similar threats.
The CCBE said the proceedings against the bar association’s leaders arose from legitimate calls for an impartial and effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two journalists. The CCBE added that the hearing which led to their dismissal was unfair.
Authorities also arrested Fırat Epözdemir – lawyer and president of the Lawyers for Freedom Association (Özgürlük için Hukukçular Derneği – ÖHD) – on Jan. 23 at Istanbul airport and have detained him in the lead-up to trial. On Apr. 8, a prosecutor indicted him on charges of “membership of an organisation” and “terrorist propaganda.”
The CCBE noted that Epözdemir could spend a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment for his public statements, including his remarks during an observatory mission regarding the curfew governing Şırnak in 2015. Reports about that time stated that 288 individuals passed away.
The CCBE expressed concerns over the seizure of Epözdemir’s office computers and hardware, as well as the charges for “terrorist propaganda” and “public dissemination of misleading information” faced by the bar association’s leaders. According to the CCBE, these acts seriously jeopardized the principle of independence of the legal profession and its representative bodies.
The CCBE noted that the principle aims to protect the integrity of the legal profession, the administration of justice, the rule of law, and specifically lawyers’ ability to exercise their professional functions without fear of reprisal, interference, intimidation, or harassment.
The CCBE urged the relevant Turkish authorities to withdraw all legal proceedings against the bar association and its representatives immediately, release Epözdemir swiftly and unconditionally, fulfill their international obligations regarding the legal profession’s independence, and sign and ratify the Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer.
The CCBE – which represents over a million European lawyers from the bars and law societies of 46 countries – called upon European institutions and the international community to take steps to help safeguard the independence of Turkish lawyers.
“Lawyers should be able to carry out their duties without facing threats, attack, reprisals, interference, intimidation or harassment,” said Hugh Mercer, chair of the international committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales, in a press release.
“We hope the international community and European institutions will take urgent action to protect lawyers and we urge the government in Türkiye to respect their international obligations relating to the independence of the legal profession,” said Barbara Mills, chair of the bar, in the press release.
In its press release, the Bar Council of England and Wales backed the CCBE’s statement. The bar council echoed the CCBE’s support for lawyers in Türkiye and the Istanbul Bar Association and its worries about criminal charges faced by the bar association’s leaders.
“The Bar Council of England and Wales joins with the CCBE in calling for the immediate withdrawal of all legal proceedings against the Istanbul Bar Association and its leaders,” Mercer said. “We also support calls for the immediate and unconditional release of lawyer Fırat Epözdemir.”
“We are gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation facing our colleagues and sister organisation in Türkiye,” Mills added. “The actions of the authorities constitute a serious attack on the independence of lawyers, their representative organisations and the rule of law.”
