Members of the folk music band Grup Yorum -Cem Dursun, Merve Kurt and Rıdvan Akbaş- were released at the end of the sixth hearing held at the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court yesterday (11 November).
Cem Dursun, who was being held at Marmara No. 6 L-Type Prison in Silivri, had been on an indefinite hunger strike for 197 days in protest against being held in a solitary cell and under 24-hour CCTV surveillance.
The People’s Law Office announced the release decisions via its social media account.
Commenting on the release decisions via his social media account, İskender Bayhan, MP for the Labor Party (EMEP), stated that Cem Dursun, Merve Kurt and Rıdvan Akbaş had been held in prison for months on baseless charges, without any evidence or concrete allegations being put forward.
Bayhan noted that Muharrem Cengiz, who had been on a hunger strike for 17 days in protest against prison conditions, could not be released due to a sentence he had received in a separate case.
