Turkish lawyers reject coup suspect cases

By Durmus Kocak, Serdar Acil

ANKARA

Some Turkish lawyers say they will not defend July 15 coup suspects, officials have said.

Chairman of Judicial Studies Association (HUDER) Huseyin Kaya told Anadolu Agency that some of the suspects applied to Ankara Bar Association attorneys but were rejected.

"We did not make a decision officially [about not defending coup suspects] but we notified our attorney friends in the association verbally," Kaya said.

However, he added that HUDER member lawyers will not defend coup suspects.

The head of Turkey’s Law and Democracy Institution, Mehmet Ali Canli, said his members would not attend the trials of coup suspects.

One Ankara Bar Association lawyer, Meltem Banko, said five families had asked her to defend some of the suspects.

"I had a night that I cannot forget [on July 15]. I cannot defend those responsible for that night," she said. "Lawyer/client relations are based on mutual trust. How can I trust a traitor?"

Earlier on Saturday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put the number of detainees at 11,160. He said the number of those who had been remanded reached 4,704.

At least 246 people, including members of the security forces and civilians, were martyred and more than 2,100 others were wounded as they protested the coup attempt.

Turkey's government has said the attempted coup was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltrating Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming the so-called ‘parallel state’.