Opposition slams AKP over students in jail

ANKARA

Deputy chair of CHP, Birgül Ayman Güler, mounted the accusations at a press conference. AA photo

Turkey’s main opposition has decried the “disproportionate and spiteful violence” against university students involved in anti-government protests, saying 503 of them are currently being held in prison.

Birgül Ayman Güler, deputy chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), mounted the accusations at a press conference yesterday following a prison visit to two students who were arrested in June during street protests to denounce a police crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in the Black Sea district of Hopa.

She said some of the students ended up behind bars after throwing eggs at political figures. “It seems that the government hunted them down with vengeance after failing to come up with a punishment for those actions,” Güler said, adding that protracted detentions were jeopardizing the students’ education. Güler highlighted the case of 10 students who have been jailed without charge for more than four months alongside ordinary criminals in a prison near Ankara. “We call on the government to end its spiteful violence against our youth,” said Güler