“There is nothing of substance in the case file”
Report on the observation of the first and final hearing in the case against Att. Bedirhan Sarsılmaz, Istanbul, 6 May 2025
On 28 October 2024, Att. Bedirhan Sarsılmaz, who is a member of the lawyers’ association Özgürlük için Hukukçular Derneği (ÖHD, Association of Lawyers for Freedom), was arrested at the Çağlayan Courthouse in Istanbul during a hearing in which he was participating as a lawyer and was only released on 20 February 2025 after almost four months in detention. Due to his work as a lawyer, Bedirhan Sarsılmaz was accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, namely the PKK. The charges brought against him based on three separate set of accusations: i) the visit of a student protest; ii) the surveillance of his phone; and iii) an interview he gave on “the right to hope.” On 6 May 2025, two lawyers representing both the Swiss Democratic Lawyers (DJS) and the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH), alongside roughly 50 colleagues from Turkey, attended the first—and final—hearing in the case against Bedirhan Sarsılmaz: Following his defense before a three-judge panel and the intervention of his lawyers, he was acquitted. Although we are delighted by the acquittal—our colleague Bedirhan Sarsılmaz should have never been on trial in the first place, and the time he spent in prison cannot be undone.
