Four lawyers and six law students who were detained as part of an investigation into the leftist İstanbul People’s Law Bureau on Thursday were subjected to police mistreatment in custody and awakened with a Janissary march on Friday morning, a news portal reported.
According to the story on the Bianet website on Friday, the detained lawyers and students were beaten by police officers during a body search at the police station.
Aytaç Ünsal, one of the lawyers with the İstanbul People’s Law Bureau, told Bianet that lawyers Oya Aslan, Yağmur Ereren, Günay Dağ and Ezgi Ökten, and law faculty students Seda Çaraldı, Müslüm Bezirgan, Görken Ağdede, Ayşenur Demir, Görkem Ağdede and Burcu Ertaş were detained on Thursday on charges of “disturbing the peace.”
Before being taken to the İstanbul Prosecutor’s Office to testify, the lawyers and students were put in a holding cell at the İstanbul Police Department where they were awakened by a Janissary march and beaten during body searches, Ünsal said.
“Our friends were detained by the police when they found them at the previously closed and sealed off building of the Law School Association, whose seal was broken. The police accused them of breaking the seal but took them into custody on charges of disturbing the peace,” Ünsal said.
Lawyers and law school students were released after they testified in the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday.
The Law School Association, which is linked to the İstanbul People’s Law Bureau, was sealed off after a government decree on Nov. 11 banned the activities of 370 associations in 39 cities.