Since the failed coup attempt in 2016, lawyers, judges and prosecutors have persistently been subject to illegal surveillance and mass arrests. The latest such arrest of 50 lawyers took place on September 11th, 2020, during police raids in Ankara in the dawn. Arrests of lawyers have become the new normal although legal professionals should enjoy strong protections by law. Turkey’s Court of Cassation, however, has deprived these guarantees of any practical effectiveness by unlawfully expanding the meaning of in flagrante delicto.
The United Nations Havana Rules on the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, too, offer certain guarantees in relation to lawyers’ legal practices. They stipulate that governments must ensure that lawyers are able to perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference. They should also not be threatened with, or suffer, prosecution or sanctions, whether of prosecution, of an administrative type or economic, for any action or actions that they take that are in accordance with their recognized professional duties, or their standards or ethics.
https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-lawyers/legality-mass-arrests-lawyers-turkey
