Political prisoner Mustafa Koçak continues the hunger strike he started on July 3 against the unjust life sentence.
Mustafa Koçak has been convicted on charges of participating in the hostage taking of the Public Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, following the cover-up that was operating on the case Barkin Elvan, 14-year-old killed by the Turkish police during demonstrations in Gezi Park in the summer of 2013. The prosecutor was killed on March 31, 2015 under police fire when he raided to free him.
“Our son is innocent”
At a press conference at the office of the Progressive Lawyers Association in Istanbul on August 10, Mustafa Koçak’s mother, Zeynep Koçak, said: “I am ready do to everything for my son. My son is on hunger strike for all political prisoners. My son is innocent.”
Mustafa’s father, Hasan Koçak, said it came to this stage because the entire trial was a series of injustices. He stressed that his son had been on hunger strike for 39 days and that they would fight for justice together with him. Koçak also said: “While he was being under custody, my son was tortured, a trash can was placed on his head and the police were hitting him. His pregnant sister was threatened by police with rape. We support our son`s demands.” Koçak’s father said he and his wife would launch a hunger strike in support of their son’s demands.
“Right to a fair trial was violated”
Mustafa Koçak’s lawyer, Ezgi Cakir, also spoke at the press conference. She began her speech, withe the words of French constitutional law expert Maurice Duverger: “Where there is no justice, everyone is guilty.” Lawyer Cakir said that justice was not limited to legal provisions, articles and paragraphs. “However, we expect that the rules, international conventions and laws of the country will be respected in this process. Because Mustafa’s right to a fair trial has been violated. A ‘witness’ Berk Ercan goes out and gives ‘testimony’ about 200 different people from all over Turkey. In the same case, our fellow lawyers were sentenced to a total of 159 years inprisonment.
The case against Mustafa Koçak is identical and there is «testimony» from Berk Ercan without even a thorough examination of the case. This is a very severe sentence, without any evidences or documents proving his guilt.”
Parents of political prisoners continue protest actions in Taksim Square in Istanbul
On 28 August, the parents of the political prisoner, Mustafa Koçak, conducted a protest action on the iconic Taksim Square in central Istanbul, symbolically wearing shrouds, holding in their hands a photo of their son and a sign saying “My son is dying because of justice”.
Shortly after the protest began, the parents of the political prisoner were stopped by the fascist police and taken to the police department in Beyoglu district. There, they testified to the police, saying: “We held this protest for our son, Mustafa Koçak. We want a fair trial. We have no other goals with our action.”
After the testimony, Zeynep and Hakan Koçak were released.
Earlier August, Mustafa’s parents and his sister went on a hunger strike to support his demands.
Meanwhile, Mustafa has been on hunger strike for almost two months at the F-type prison near Izmir in western Turkey. The prison administration, in turn, began repression for his protest, preventing letters written by him to his relatives from being sent, and does not regularly receive newspapers and other magazines. At the same time, the authorities have not taken any steps towards respecting the demands of the political prisoner: reviewing the case and launching a new fair trial.
