Every year, on the 23rd of May, MEDEL honors the memory of Giovanni Falcone and that of all magistrates who lost their lives for their courageous commitment to Justice.
MEDEL celebrates this day as the Alert Day for the Independence of Justice, calling for the conditions for effective and independent Justice to be restored in all contexts where authoritarian drifts have deprived individuals of the guarantees of due process, and turned the Courts into instruments of oppression.
In this day, let us once again recall our Turkish colleagues and their struggle for the return of rule of law in their country.
A bright example is that of Murat Arslan, President of Yarsav, unjustly sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and detained since October 2016. Murat, winner of the prestigious Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2017, was arbitrarily deprived of his personal freedom due to his commitment to rule of law and fundamental rights.
Notwithstanding the unlawful denial of conditional release and the arbitrary dismissal of the appeal against this decision, Murat continues to courageously pursue from Sincan prison his struggle for Justice.
MEDEL, together with its member associations, will keep fighting alongside Murat and supporting him with the solidarity of all European judges and prosecutors (https://medelnet.eu/medel-in-support-of-murat/).
MEDEL once again urges the international community to take all necessary steps so that Murat and all those unjustly detained in Turkey are finally given back their freedom.
May 23rd, 2024