WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MORNING OF THE FAILED COUP ATTEMPT?

REPORTED BY A JUDGE

1-    In the morning of the coup (16 July, 2016) at 4:00 am, some judges and prosecutors shared the ‘black list of 2745 colleagues’ on the WhatsApp Group that is mostly composed of ‘Nationalist Judges and Prosecutors’. They texted as: “the coup has failed but we will make a successful coup tomorrow”.

2-    After the coup attempt, there were some rational thinking colleagues about the mass arrests, they spoke with the Chief Prosecutor, and they were rejected and were threatened to be on the list to be arrested.

3-    In the city of Duzce, when judges and prosecutors were detained, they got ill treatment. Judge Mrs. Mukadder Küçükkaya were subjected to the ill treatment, and when she wanted to contact with a lawyer, she could not manage because the lawyer was told that she was black listed. Then Judge Mrs. Mukadder Küçükkaya had some argument with policemen and policemen swore to this judge.

4-    The next day after the coup attempt, and at the time of not having any decisions against any judges and prosecutors, some policemen surrounded the government funded houses where judges and prosecutors live. That continued for 8-10 hours without any official document, these judges and prosecutors including their guests were not given any permission to leave their houses.

5-    There was a couple (one of them was a judge and the other was a prosecutor), and they had 4 children and one of them was a baby who needed nursing. After the detention of this couple, these 4 children got stuck at the home alone for hours and cried. An attorney heard their voices from outside and went to the Police office and became a pro bono attorney for the family. Then, both mother and father (judge and prosecutor) got arrested.

6-    Then this couple and another female judge who also has a baby appealed to the court to be released, the court released both mother judges, and then the judge who made this decision got a call from the deputy chief prosecutor and got an order not to release anybody on the list. And chief prosecutor, deputy chief prosecutor and the most senior judge at the court house made verbal claims to the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors and the Ministry of Justice. And right after, this judge was reassigned to another position. And this judge’s name was put on the second list, and then he was dismissed, and detention and search warrants were issued about him.

7-    At the night of the release of these mother judges, there was a group of people (composed of lawyers) that were discussing the release decision, and one of the colleagues agreed on the decision because of the babies and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Ahmet Altun disagreed with him and said: “F*** the baby, let the baby die”.