A Turkish appeals court has upheld prison sentences for 10 labor union and civil society activists over a 2015 demonstration in Adana province calling for participation in a peace rally in Ankara, Turkish media reported.
The Adana Regional Court of Justice issued the ruling on October 22, affirming convictions handed down by the Adana 17th Criminal Court of First Instance on April 21 for violating Turkey’s law on demonstrations and for resisting public officials. The court dismissed an 11th defendant’s appeal on procedural grounds.
Seven of the 11 defendants received prison sentences of four-and-a-half years each, while four others received three-and-a-half years each.
The case stemmed from an October 6, 2015, demonstration in Adana, where police blocked the activists from marching to Atatürk Park and used tear gas and batons, injuring five people.
The trial court found that the demonstrators had failed to disperse despite police warnings. It classified plastic poles used to carry union flags as weapons, finding that they had been used against police and could cause injury, and increased the sentences on that basis.
Defense lawyer Tugay Bek said the demonstration was peaceful and that the defendants had exercised their constitutional right to freedom of assembly. He also warned that the convictions could lead to dismissal of defendants employed as civil servants.
The October 10 peace rally in Ankara was intended to call for an end to renewed fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Two Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bombers attacked people gathering for the rally outside the city’s main train station, killing 104 people and injuring hundreds. In June 2026 prosecutors declined to investigate public officials accused of negligence before the bombing in June 2026, citing the statute of limitations.
The ruling made the convictions for resisting public officials final for the 10 defendants. They can, however, appeal their convictions for violating the law on assemblies and demonstrations with the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Bek criticized the restrictions on further appeals, saying Supreme Court of Appeals precedents allow convictions for resisting police during a demonstration to be reviewed together with convictions for violating the law on demonstrations.
The defendants were first convicted in 2020. In 2024 an appeals court overturned the convictions of those who had appealed, leading to a retrial.
The 11th defendant, Sinan Hüdür, had not appealed his original conviction, but was retried after the 2024 ruling was extended to him under Turkish criminal procedure rules. The appeals court dismissed his appeal of the new conviction, saying the retrial did not give him a new right to appeal. Hüdür can still challenge that dismissal.
