Court Days Under the Threat of Coronavirus – Indirect Murder Attempt

During the coronavirus period, the defendants were not even given the opportunity to see doctors and nurses.

While all the developed countries of the world are aware of the sanctity of human life due to the coronavirus and have been taking various measures to reduce cases and deaths, we have observed that due to domestic and foreign political concerns our Ministry of Health hides even the cases of the Coronavirus from the public. Thousands of our citizens lost their lives because the necessary measures were not taken against the spread of this virus. Again, thousands of our citizens were brought face to face with death while in prison, waiting for the final decision to be made about them. They struggled with this disease under very difficult conditions, without a doctor and without medicine. The last case we witnessed and was the news of the death of Brigadier General Mehmet Şükrü Eken.

We learned from our comrades that a SAT Commando soldier, who has been in prison for 5 years and boosting morale for everyone around him, is fighting against the disease without any medical support, despite the fact that dozens of people in his ward caught the Coronavirus. Since the closed down GATA graduate doctors also suffered from this persecution, they tried to cure this disease in the prison wards where they were guests for a period and requested help from the Prison Infirmary by using the title of doctor. We have heard and learned that our fellow soldiers, who have been talking about not seeing a nurse and a doctor for 5 years, became happy to see a doctor and medicine, albeit for the first time.

Due to the Coronavirus Threat, the Presidents of the Courts were warned repeatedly, but they did not listen.

We learned again that Colonel Eşref Mert (who we mentioned in our previous news), who pointed out this deadly health threat in his defense, were not taken seriously by the president of the court. Thus, the president did not fulfill his responsibility and did not take the necessary measures, despite repeated written and verbal requests. In his defense, Eşref Mert said, “Unfortunately, we have experienced the inevitable end because you did not postpone the hearings despite my open requests for the postponement of the hearings due to the high risk of infection and life-threatening danger. Many of the defendants, including myself, contracted this disease.” From these words, we experience the pain of hearing the inhumane practices in prisons once again.

Despite the fact that many people fell ill and had serious problems, it was not decided to postpone the hearings, which should be taken as a precaution, to a later date when the danger of epidemic decreased. Instead, our comrades-in-arms held captive in prison were forced to watch the trial from the SEGBİS rooms of the prisons. In addition, due to the fact that there were defendants who contracted the disease during the hearings, decisions were not made to conduct a Covid-19 test to other defendants who may have contacted, which is normally a must.
 

Indirect Murder Attempts!

Defendants with positive (+) disease status were forced to stay together with others in SEGBİS rooms in prisons. Therefore, SEGBİS rooms, where hearings are watched in prisons, were not safe places against the virus, and therefore hundreds of people became ill and suffered the disease under very difficult conditions. There were those who were exposed to the coronavirus for the second time. We will only be able to understand what kind of permanent damage was caused to the health of these people in the future.

Even though Colonel Eşref Mert said in the court that "there is a risk of infection, even if I am brought to the court today and making a defense in the hall, there is a risk of contracting the virus again," the necessary precautions were not taken and he was exposed to the coronavirus for the second time and lived deadly risks. Who can object that this is an indirect attempted murder?

With a criminal complaint he sent to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Colonel Mert filed a criminal complaint against the delegation within the scope of Article 257 of the Turkish Penal Code, on the grounds that "despite all my requests to the court and the obvious danger I pointed out you have caused my victimization and abused your duty by not taking the necessary precautions."

However, as in the example of the late Brigadier General Mehmet Şükrü Eken, many of our citizens lost their lives due to the Coronavirus they were caught in prison. The right to life is the most fundamental right and the principle of the sanctity of the right to live has unfortunately been trampled underfoot.

While soldiers were forced to court under the threat of coronavirus, directed provocateurs cursing defendants didn't attend courts.

The personnel of the Turkish Armed Forces, who strictly abided by the lawful work throughout their professional life, had to defend themselves without the opportunity to access or see any information, documents or images in the file, any evidence for or against them, while making their defense. In order to make their defense, they were brought to the courts by force or they were forced to be in the same place in SEGBİS Rooms with other defendants diagnosed with Coronavirus.

While the soldiers were trying to make a defense in difficult conditions, the lawyers of the complainants asked questions to press the defendants in a way that they had full knowledge of all the information, documents and evidence in the file regarding the defendants. In addition to this inequality, the directed provocateurs, who were also clustered in the audience section at the back of the hall, took their places for constant swearing and provocation.

However, during the coronavirus period, no one was seen during the defenses made, even if the defense time of the soldiers was limited, even if the defenses were prepared without examining the scope of the file completely. One of the lawyers of the complainant appeared for a while and then left. And that directed blasphemous crowd did not even come or be sent to the hall so that they would not hear the striking truth.

The "basic right to life" of soldiers who had served their country faithfully for years was not taken into account as much as the health concerns of directed abusive ones. Moreover, there were news that no coronavirus cases were found in prisons so that public reaction would not occur.

Nowadays, despite the fact that contact visits have been blocked for about two years, the persecution continues by keeping distances between families during visits.