18 ESP (Socialist Platform of the Oppressed) activists who were imprisoned in Amed (Diyarbakir) on 21 September and 9 November as a result of the state terror -the wave of raids and imprisonment that began in September against our party and revolutionary and socialist associations and still continues- have been taken to the Heavy Penal Court of Diyarbakir for the hearings on 22 and 23 February.
On 21 February, ESP organised simultaneous actions in Istanbul, Adana, Antep, Ankara, Malatya, Eskisehir and Bursa demanding freedom to the Amed prisoners.
At the hearing on 22 February, 4 of the 9 ESP activists were released. And the result of the hearing on 23 February where 9 other ESP activists who were imprisoned on 9 November were being judged was the release of 4 more activists. 10 ESP activists were sent back to prison and the date of the second hearing was fixed as 22 March.
While the hearings were continuing, the front garden of the court was turned into a square of action. ESP activists from the Kurdish cities such as Dersim, Sivas, Malatya, Antep and Erzurum and from Adana, Mersin and Antakya gathered massively in Amed in order to stand in solidarity with the prisoners, while a delegation of Istanbul ESP went to Amed to be present at the hearings.
DTP (Party of Democratic Society), Initiative of Peace Mothers, the trade unions Yapı Yol-Sen, Tüm Bel-Sen and Eğitim-Sen, TKP (Communist Party of Turkey), the revolutionary magazine "Partizan", DHP (Platform for Democratic Rights) and HÖC (Rights and Freedoms Front) supported the ESP prisoners by gathering in front of the court. An international delegation from Germany also observed the hearing.
The police groups from the Anti-terror Department hindered the representatives of different associations and delegations from entering the court and observing the hearings, in an arbitrary manner and one ESP activist was arrested for "wearing a hat written ‘ESP' on it". The imprisonment of Hilmi Aydogdu, President of the Amed Branch of DTP, on 23 February was also protested in the action in front of the court.
On the other hand, two more ESP activists were arrested in Amed at the city centre on 18 February and they were sent to prison, being charged with "being affiliated to MLCP".