Unionists Released From Jail

Dockyard union executives Cem Dinc and Kamber Saygili who were placed under arrest and imprisoned 40 days ago on charges of “resisting the police” while attempting to file a criminal complaint against the police force for using disproportional force to disperse dockyard labour action in Tuzla, were set free on July 20, Thursday.

Port, Dockyard, Shipbuilding-Repairs Workers Union (LIMTER-IS) Chairman Dinc and Educatio n Expert Saygili will still stand trial on the charges but have told the court, in its first hearing, that they had only used their legal rights and it was a natural right for organized workers to seek their rights.

Dinc, in his defense, rejected the indictment and said it was them who were subjected to violence.

Saygili told the court that he rejected all allegations made against them and said that other than the date and place of incident, every information in the prosecutor’s indictment was false.

The court decided to adjourn the case to August 19 while releasing the two unionists in a hearing that was crowded by unionists, non governmental organization and political party representatives.

The two union executives were arrested 40 days ago on the pretext of "resisting the police" after being detained while on their way to file a complaint against the police force for attacking a union action gathering and beating them two days before.

They were trying to file a complaint against a previous police attack on union members by police on June 10, Friday, where the two were singled out from among a group of union members and beaten by officers. Dinc was injured in the head.

The arrested unionists staged a protest hunger strike in prison from June 28 to July 3 while the union itself launched a “Freedom for Arrested Unionists” campaign. LIMTER-IS collected signatures asking for the release of the unionists to send a mass petition to the Minister of Justice Cemil Cicek. .

Their attorney has described the arrest as “totally against the law” saying, “the employers are using their weight to break the actions of the workers”. (KO/II