İSTANBUL - With the execution of his prison sentence deferred after his death fast for a fair trial, lawyer Aytaç Ünsal has been taken into custody in Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne “because he was suspected to flee abroad.”
The Ministry of Interior has announced that lawyer Aytaç Ünsal has been "caught with three migrant smugglers while trying to flee abroad from Edirne," a northwestern province of Turkey bordering Greece.
Making a statement about the detention of the lawyer, the People's Law Bureau (HHB), has said, "We have been informed that the lawyer of our bureau Aytaç Ünsal has been taken into custody in Edirne province and there is a detention warrant against him for 48 hours. Aytaç is not in a medical state to stay in detention as he is still recovering from his death fast. Aytaç Ünsal must be released immediately."
In a statement released by the Ministry of Interior, it has been stated, "Coordinated by the Intelligence Department of the General Directorate of Security, İstanbul and Edirne Security Directorate teams started an operation after they were informed that Ünsal would go abroad in illegal ways so that he would not enter prison after his prison sentence had become final."
Ünsal was detained by three others in Edirne.
The Ministry of Interior has further stated that "in the search carried out in the vehicle where he was caught, a boat to be used to cross the Evros river and a navigator showing the coordinates of the border were seized."
BACKGROUND
On a death fast for her right to a fair trial, arrested lawyer Ebru Timtik lost her life in the Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul on the 238th day of her death fast on August 27, 2020.
On September 4, arrested lawyer Aytaç Ünsal, who had also been on a death fast with the same demand, ended his death fast on the condition of being treated by independent physicians after the Court of Cassation released him on probation.
The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation handed down its judgement in the trial of Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) and upheld all prison sentences, except for the ones given to lawyers Barkın Timtik, Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Ezgi Çakır.
The Chamber indicated that there was no ground to give a judgement about lawyer Ebru Timtik as she had lost her life on a death fast. The execution of lawyer Aytaç Ünsal's sentence will be deferred until his treatment ends.