According to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 85 detainees were brought before the criminal court on Friday with requests for pretrial detention. The court ordered the imprisonment of 78 of them, while the remaining seven were placed under house arrest. The suspects face charges including “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorist propaganda.”
Total number of detainees reaches 181
A day earlier, the court had ordered the pretrial detention of 103 people. The latest decisions largely conclude the judicial process for those who remained in custody following the police raids carried out on June 23.
The large-scale operations were preceded by house raids in Ankara and Istanbul. Those targeted included socialists, trade unionists, environmental activists, lawyers, journalists, media workers, and other representatives of civil society organizations.
DEM Party strongly condemns the arrests
The DEM Party once again strongly condemned the detentions. In a statement, the party described the prosecutor’s allegations as fabricated. It stressed that criticizing NATO or protesting against the military alliance does not constitute a criminal offense and called for the immediate release of everyone being held in custody.
Sezai Temelli, deputy chair of the DEM Party’s parliamentary group, also criticized the judicial actions. In a post on X, he said Ankara had effectively been placed under a state of emergency ahead of the NATO summit.
“This is not a NATO summit; this is NATO terror,” Temelli wrote.