Suspect who threatened İzmir Bar Association President and Secretary General released: Bar Association issues statement of reaction

In the city, Türker E. applied to the İzmir Bar Association Legal Aid Center to request a lawyer for a case pending in the consumer court. The lawyers assigned by the center returned the case due to Türker E.'s actions and attitudes.

It is alleged that upon this, Türker E. reached out to İzmir Bar Association President Sefa Yılmaz and Bar Association Secretary General Zöhre Dalkıran, and threatened them with death through videos and messages he sent. Lawyers Yılmaz and Dalkıran filed a criminal complaint with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Türker E. on the grounds that he committed the crimes of 'Threat', 'Insult', 'Stalking', 'Preventing a public official from performing their duty', and 'Unlawful acquisition of personal data'.

The İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a detention warrant for Türker E. on December 23. After being apprehended, Türker E. was released by the on-duty criminal judgeship of peace, with measures applied to 'not approach the victim and sign in at the police station once a week'. Following the decision, the İzmir Bar Association issued a written statement reacting to the situation.

The following statements were included in the written statement:

We Stand With Our President and Secretary Generalhttps://t.co/UDHLKT5IMA

— İzmir Barosu - #SavunmaSusturulamaz (@izmir_barosu) December 28, 2024

"The matter concerns the rejection of the suspect's last application after lawyers were assigned following his previous applications to the İzmir Bar Association Legal Aid Center, but the assigned lawyers returned the case due to the suspect's actions and attitudes.

Following this decision, the suspect began sending videos and messages containing death threats to our President, Lawyer Sefa Yılmaz, and our Secretary General, Lawyer Zöhre Dalkıran, and similarly continued his threats and stalking by obtaining the names and birth dates of our colleagues' children. A criminal complaint was filed with the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on December 23 regarding these crimes.

The suspect, who was detained upon the complaint, confessed to his crimes in his statement to the prosecutor's office. However, although the prosecutor's office referred the suspect to the criminal judgeship of peace with a request for 'house arrest' for the crimes of 'Stalking' and 'Threat against a woman', the relevant judgeship decided to apply measures of 'not approaching the victim and signing in at the police station once a week' despite the evidence in the file, and released the suspect."

"HE CONTINUED HIS THREATS"

After his release, the suspect continued his death threats in a post on his social media account, stating, 'Ready and waiting for a warning shot. I am not in custody, I am in plain sight. If you were deaf you would hear, if you were blind you would see. Assassination package'. The suspect, emboldened and encouraged by the judicial control decision, dared to share on his social media accounts that he would assassinate the bar association's management as soon as he was released.

We regret to state that the ineffective judicial control decision given regarding the suspect, who focused his actions on our female colleague who is the Secretary General of the İzmir Bar Association during this process, has resulted in nothing but encouraging the suspect.

From this stage on, those responsible for any attack that our bar association executives and their families may face are those who misclassified the crime, created a belief in the suspect that he would not be punished, encouraged the suspect, and caused him to openly share that he would carry out an assassination. The policy of impunity pursued against violence towards lawyers must be ended immediately. We thank all our colleagues and bar associations who have shown solidarity."

HOUSE ARREST GRANTED

The suspect, who was detained on allegations of threatening İzmir Bar Association President Sefa Yılmaz and İzmir Bar Association Secretary General Zöhre Dalkıran, has been placed under house arrest.

Within the scope of the investigation conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, a detention warrant was issued for the suspect T.E. on the grounds that he threatened Yılmaz and Dalkıran.

Following the decision, the suspect was detained by police teams.

After the procedures at the police station, the suspect was referred to the courthouse.

The İzmir Criminal Judgeship of Peace ordered house arrest for the suspect for the crime of "threat against a woman".

News Source: 12punto