Gas mask and scarf are considered as ‘evidence of crime’ in a case related to Gezi protests
10 people who had been taken into custody during the Gezi protests of 2013 were also sued. Now, they have been sentenced to 5 months in jail ‘for attending an assembling that was against the law and for resisting against security forces’ and their gas masks and scarves are considered as ‘evidence’ in proof of the crime.
On 16 June 2013, during the Gezi protests, 44 people had been taken into custody in front of a local café in İstanbul’s Beşiktaş district for ‘not leaving site’. 11 of those people were sued with charges of ‘resisting against the security forces for preventing them from carrying out their duties; for assaulting and causing minor bodily harm on the officer on duty; for joining an assembling that is against the law; and, for insisting on not leaving the site despite having been warned and forced.’ While the trials were pending, one of them lost his life.
According to the reports of Cansu Pişkin from Evrensel newspaper, the last hearing of the case was held recently in İstanbul 11th Criminal Court of First Instance and the judge ordered for the 10 defendents to get acquitted from ‘resisting against the security forces for preventing them from carrying out their duties; for assaulting and causing minor bodily harm on the officer on duty’. Furthermore, they were found guilty of ‘joining an assembling that is against the law and for insisting on not leaving the site despite having been warned and forced’; and, the judge sentenced them to 5 months in jail.
With the condition of not getting involved in the same kind of a ‘crime’ for the following 5 consecutive years, the court has not given the final order in the case for the time being and seized the gas masks and the scarves, which these individuals had had in their possession when they had taken into custody, as evidence in proof of their crime.
All 11 people who had been sued in this regard happen to have certain things in common: they all have a criminal record from past and they happened to have in their possession gas masks and scarves during the time when they had been arrested by the police.
Getting ready to object to the decision of the court, the lawyers in the case have claimed that ‘there was no evidence proving that their defendants had been involved in a crime.’
Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/gaz-maskesi-ve-esarp-suc-delili-sayildi-130557.html