A trial involving 17 people who were standing trial for defying a government ban to hold a May Day demonstration in central İstanbul has been concluded with the acquittal all the defendants, the Anka news agency reported.
The defendants were among more than 200 demonstrators who intended to march from İstanbul’s Saraçhane neighborhood to Taksim Square, which has symbolic importance, to mark International Workers’ Day on May 1.
Some were detained on May 1 and others in the following days on accusations that they resisted law enforcement to make their way to Taksim.
The İstanbul 24th High Criminal Court ruled on Friday for the acquittal of the 17 defendants on the grounds that the elements of a crime did not exist.
The demonstrators were accused of violating the law on meetings and demonstrations, disseminating terrorist propaganda and praising a crime and a criminal.
The proposed prison sentences for all the demonstrators totaled more than 560 years.
In another trial 30 other May Day demonstrators face similar charges that also include resisting a public officer and intentionally causing injury and vandalism.
More than 200 demonstrators were detained, and over 80 of them were arrested for defying the May Day ban on Taksim on May 1.
Some demonstrators were kept in pretrial detention for more than two months. The arrests attracted widespread criticism at the time because the government ban on demonstrations in Taksim Square contravenes a Constitutional Court decision last year that found violations of the right to free assembly in the controversial ban.
However, the Interior Ministry and the İstanbul Governor’s Office announced before May Day that no demonstrations would be allowed in Taksim due to security concerns, which sparked a backlash from opposition parties, labor unions and civil society, groups who said the ban was “unconstitutional.”
The symbolic importance of Taksim Square stems from the killing of 34 people by unknown assailants on May Day in 1977. The area has become a subject of tension and confrontation between the government and labor unions in the days leading up to May Day since 2013.
Until 2009, Taksim was off limits to demonstrators following Bloody May Day in 1977. About three decades after the incident, under tight security, Taksim Square became the venue of peaceful demonstrations aside from a few minor incidents in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The area was closed to demonstrations again in 2013 out of security concerns.