Emine Şenyaşar – who conducted a sit-in protest last week in front of the Şanlıurfa (Riha) Courthouse in Turkey with a demand for ‘justice’ regarding the killing of her two sons and husband – has been detained.
Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar had been demonstrating with their sit-in outside the Şanlıurfa (Riha) courthouse for a week. Emine was detained on the seventh day of the sit-in protest on the charges of “insulting police officers”, Mesopotamia Agency reported.
Her son, Ferit Şenyaşar, has reportedly been continuing the sit-in in front of the Courthouse. Shop owner Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and two of his sons, Adil and Celal, had lost their lives as a result of an armed attack by the bodyguards and relatives of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP’s) Urfa deputy, İbrahim Halil Yıldız.
The attack took place in the Suruç district of Urfa in Turkey on 14 June 2018, just before the local elections, while deputy İbrahim Halil Yıldız and those accompanying him were visiting shops in Suruç as part of their election campaign. A dispute arose after the shop owner, Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar, asked them to leave his shop. Mehmet Şah Yıldız from the family of the AKP deputy also lost his life during the incident and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Şenyaşar’s family ‘terrorists’.
Fadıl Şenyaşar, another son of the Şenyaşar family, was detained by the police for killing Mehmet Şah Yıldız even before his medical treatment for injuries sustained in the attack had been completed. He has been in prison since.
Emine Şenyaşar, – who lost her husband and two sons in the 2018 attack – has repeated her demand that the murderers of her family members must face justice. She has also called for the release of her son Fadıl Şenyaşar, who has been under arrest and who faces a 150 year imprisonment term.
