Turkish human rights lawyer dies after hunger strike
Ebru Timtik died on the 238th day of her strike, which she launched to draw attention to what rights groups have described as an unfair trial.
A Turkish human rights lawyer serving a terrorism sentence in Istanbul has died after a seven-month hunger strike she launched to demand a fair trial.
Ebru Timtik, 42, weighed just 30 kilograms (66 pounds) at the time of her death at an Istanbul hospital Thursday, her law office confirmed. The Kurdish lawyer was on the 238th day of a hunger strike she hoped would draw attention to her case.
She and 17 other lawyers were convicted in March 2019 of ties to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C), a leftist militant group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Lawyers groups said the court proceedings lacked credibility, noting that the judges who initially ordered the lawyers be released from pretrial detention were taken off the case, and that some witness identities were kept anonymous.
