End Judicial Harassment against Human Rights Defenders!
12 March 2024
Attorney Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi has been a member of İHD’s local Antalya Branch since October 12, 2022 and has served in the legal and prison commissions as well as as a board member of the branch since July 9, 2023.
On February 20, 2024, Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi was taken into custody on charges of membership in an illegal armed organization (Article 314/2 of the Turkish Penal Code) and was arrested on February 23, 2024 under Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office Investigation No. 2023/105909. An attempt was made to strip search Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi in Antalya Women’s Prison, to which she was transferred, but it was not carried out upon her refusal.
The accusation against Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi is based on the allegation that she visited Antalya High-Security Prison on November 8, 2023 as per the assignment of the branch, upon applications of prisoners in Antalya High-Security Prison to İHD Antalya Branch regarding the rights violations they have been facing in prison, and that a note containing “organizational instructions” was found in the pocket of one prisoner and the room of another prisoner during the search conducted in the prison after this visit.
The Human Rights Association is a CSO that receives applications from all over Turkey on various issues, including rights violations in prisons, and works to finalize the applications it receives by using administrative complaint and justice mechanisms, undertakes scientific research, and aims to raise public awareness by reporting its findings. “Researching and documenting human rights practices in Turkey and informing the public and authorities; providing legal support to victims of rights violations; intervening in legal cases” are listed among the activities of the association in line with its aims and principles in the charter of the association.
Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi was arrested for visiting prisoners to examine and report on human rights allegations in line with the aims and principles of İHD, and as a human rights defender, in addition to being a lawyer. There is a confidentiality order on the investigation file subject to the arrest, and the “camera footage” used as justification for the arrest decision is not disclosed to Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi’s attorneys. However, since March 11, 2024, information about the investigation file, which should have remained confidential, has been shared on Twitter (X)[1] and pro-government media outlets[2]. These news reports and posts targeting Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi and İHD violate Article 157 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the confidentiality of investigations. Furthermore, Article 18 of the Principles on the Role of Lawyers (Havana Rules) provides that lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ cases by virtue of the exercise of their functions.
The organized nature of the smear campaign targeting Atty. Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi and the Human Rights Association, whose 23 members and executives have lost their lives as a result of extrajudicial executions since its foundation and whose dozens of members have been subjected to judicial harassment for their human rights advocacy activities, in disregard of the principle of confidentiality of the investigation, clearly shows the seriousness and immediacy of the threats. In the event that İHD members and executives are harmed as a result of these news reports, those responsible are those who made these false reports and those who had them made.
The fact that Attorney Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi’s conferring with prisoners in Antalya High-Security Prison on November 8, 2023, was used as grounds for her arrest violates the principle of legal security and certainty as well as being an arbitrary violation of the right to liberty and security. It is unacceptable to criminalize the activities of lawyers and human rights defenders with evidence contrary to the ordinary course of life and to intimidate rights defenders through the judiciary.
The Human Rights Association has been defending human rights for 37 years since its foundation. It will not compromise on this stance in the future. The pressures against our association must end immediately and Attorney Şüheda Ronahi Çiftçi must be released immediately.
Human Rights Association
[1] https://twitter.com/derinkuvvet/status/1767109009880875454?s=48
[2]https://www.sabah.com.tr/galeri/gundem/kandil-kuryeligine-mesleki-faaliyet-kilifi-teroristle-gorusen-avukattan-akla-ziyan-aciklama/3