What does Mavi Marmara trial mean?
It is of utmost importance for the perpetrators of the Mavi Marmara attack to be tried in the ongoing trial at İstanbul 7th High Criminal Court. Important details about the ongoing trials both in Turkey and International Criminal Court are as follows:
Mavi Marmara attack
An attack by Israeli military forces on Freedom Flotilla on May 31, 2010 resulted in the killing of nine humanitarian activists and injury of dozens of others. Israeli soldiers tortured and abused many passengers of Mavi Marmara and seized their personal belongings during and after the attack.
Mavi Marmara trial process
Following the MaviMarmara attack, families of the martyrs and other passengers on board the ship began a major legal struggle against Israel. The four accused in the trial are former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gen. Rau Gavriel Ashkenazi, Naval Forces Commander Eliezer Alfred Maron, Israel's Chief of Israeli Intelligence Amos Yadlin and Air Forces Intelligence Director Avishay Levi.
Meaning of the case filed in Turkey
In consideration of the fact that both Turkey and Israel signed European Convention on Extradition (SİDAS), if the İstanbul court convicts the suspects, Israel will need to extradite them.
In addition, the Turkey branch Interpol will be able to ask the General Secretariat of Interpol to issue red notice for the suspects for the execution of the rulings of the İstanbul 7th High Criminal Court or arrest warrants issued by the court earlier. If these happen, Israel will need to extradite the suspects to Turkey.
UN report on the attack
A Mavi Marmara report voted and approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council said that provisions of the 4thGeneva Convention were violated due to the illegal acts committed during the attack.
Application to International Criminal Court
Authorized by Union of Comoros, lawyer Dr. Ramazan Arıtürk and laywer Cihat Gökdemir applied to the International Criminal Court on May 14, 2013 for the trial those planning and carrying out the Mavi Marmara attack. Their application is in the state of a pre-trial now.
Arıtürk and Gökdemir demanded the trial and punishment of all Israeli high-ranking officials involved in the attack along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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