Unlawful prosecution of METU LGBTI+ students continue
Today, the 2nd Trial of the Court case against the students from METU [Middle East Technical University] LGBTI+ Solidarity who organized METU Pride March, that was under violent attack from police forces.
YOU CAN SUPPORT THEM TONIGHT
Lars Oskan-Henriksen, Chairperson for Copenhagen Pride, encourages worldwide solidarity and a joint effort in a time of need:
“METU pride organisers are prosecuted for exercising their basic human right: to organise a peaceful demonstration and for demanding to be treated as equal and respected citizens. The Turkish authorities have turned this into a display of the worst kind of how authorities attempt to bully civil society into silence. We can not stand silent in the face of this and ask people everywhere to speak up in METU pride’s defense!”
The plead from METU LGBTI+ Solidarity is as follows:
“Police forces violently attached 9th METU Pride March and detained 22 people during the event. Later on, scholarships of the detained students were cut without any explanation. At the end, 18 students and 1 academics who attended the March were sued due to unlawful reasons.
On 12 November 2019, the first trial of the case was carried out. Second trial will take place on 12th of March at 9.00am in 39th First Instance Penal Court in Ankara.
Since the beginning of the case, unlawful implementations were carried out against us: Our request for open an investigation against the police officers who used their power violently during the event were rejected and although there were many video footage recording the violent attacks, the case were opened against the students instead of violent police officers.
We urge everyone to raise their voice for our friends who just wanted to use their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Any word to be spoken would be precious for our freedom.
On 11th of March at 20.00, we will organize a Twitter campaign with the following hashtags: #ODTÜnünOnurunaSahipÇık ve #DefendMETUPride
Our official Twitter account is @odtulgbti, you can also tag our name. We will also share the news regarding the case in our account.
Please support our campaign.
In Solidarity.
METU LGBTI+ Solidarity
QUICK-CLICKS:
Follow their Twitter profile here.
Sign the Amnesty Petition here.
