Balyoz lawyers meet Constitutional Court head

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet

Defense lawyers in the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plot case visited Constitutional Court head Haşim Kılıç on May 8 in Ankara.

Lawyers Şule Nazlıoğlu Erol, İlkay Sezer and Murat Ergün have been holding a protest in front of the Constitutional Court for four days against the lengthy detentions in the cases, as well as against the delay in rulings by the top court concerning individual appeals on lengthy detentions.

The lawyers told reporters after the meeting that they would continue their protest. Ergün said Kılıç promised that the Court would be “more sensitive about the protection of the rights and freedoms,” and said their protest was seen by the Court as “part of freedom of expression.”

Erol appealed to the Constitutional Court on behalf of 17 clients in the case on Nov. 7, 2013, but the Court has still not given a verdict.

One of the 17 clients was 49-year-old Murat Özenalp, who died on May 1, five days after he was taken to hospital after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in prison. He had been sent to the Gülhane Military Academy of Medicine (GATA) from the Mamak Military Prison on April 26, but doctors were unable to operate on him as the hemorrhage was continuing. Özenalp fainted and fell to the floor while playing with his 8-year-old daughter during an open visit.

Özenalp was sentenced to a 16-year prison term on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, and was among the 237 suspects in the case whose convictions were approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals in October 2013.