Five Turkish protesters are facing between 11-98 years in prison. These people attended demonstrations in Antalya, Turkey that took place in September 2013 after the police killing of protester Ahmet Atakan another protestor Hatay province .
The prosecution is seeking for between 24 to 98 years for Ayşe Deniz Karacagil, a 21-year-old woman, who has come to be publicly known as the “girl with the red scarf” on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization, opposing Assembly Law and resisting arrest. The prosecutors claim that Ayşe is a member of an illegal Marxist-Leninist organization. The evidence? A red scarf she was wearing during the protest. Reminiscent of the Nazi era, according to the prosecution, the color red represents “socialism” and by wearing a red scarf, Ayşe was indicating her support for the illegal organization. Ayşe was detained October 2, 2013 by the police at a bus stop in the city center as she was waiting for her younger sister to go home after school and held in prison for four months until she was released in February pending trial.
The prosecutors demanded between 11 to 95 years jail sentence for the other protesters.
In the first hearing of the trial held on June 12 in Antalya 6th Heavy Criminal Court, one of the defendants Leyla Nuyan said “If money spent on tear gas that was shot on people in Gezi protests had been spent on the safety measures for the miners in Soma, today those miners would still have been alive.” Last May, over 300 miners were killed after they were trapped after an explosion in a privately operated mine in Soma. The next hearing of the trial is scheduled for end of October.
It is not a crime to wear a red scarf. It is not a crime to be a socialist. Freedom for Ayşe and other protestors who are fighting to end the rule of real criminals: the capitalists.
