Tista' taqra bil- Malti.
Two Turkish mothers who were jailed and separated from their young sons for using forged passports have been freed as Court overturned their prison sentence.
The women, Rabia Yavuz, 27, and Muzekka Deneri, 29, have been fighting to be reunited with their sons – aged two and four – after being sentenced to six months in prison.
The two women were freed on Friday afternoon after having ear.lier this week filed an appeal against the ‘disproportionate and excessive’ punishment.
They admitted to using fake travel documents, saying they could not return to their country because of political persecution. Moreover, the two women, who were separated from their sons, are in the process of applying for asylum.
Their appeal to overturn the sentence was upheld by Judge Aaron Bugeja. While upholding their original six month prison sentence, this wad suspended for two years.
The case has been cast into the national spotlight after lobbyists and legal experts argued that the sentence went against Malta’s human rights obligations.
Yesterday, activists and social workers gathered outside the law courts and protested the six-month imprisonment. Sociologist Mary Grace Vella said the sentence is a manifest example of institutionalised racism since a number of other more lenient and suitable sanctions could have effectively been meted out by the Courts.
On Monday, lawyers Gianluca Cappitta and Jason Grima filed an appeal on the women’s behalf. The lawyers explained that the women belonged to the Gulen movement and had fled their country to avoid harsh consequences.
The lawyers maintained that their clients are in need of the protection of the state.
Turkey has purged and arrested tens of thousand of people, after it blamed Fethullah Gulen for the July 2016 failed putsch. In its aftermath, over 40,000 people were arrested and some 110,000 public servants were dismissed.
Last week, Moviment Graffitti lashed out at the justice system which it said handed “cruel prison sentences without any humanitarian consideration to their particular circumstances – a blatant case of abuse of power and institutionalised racism.”
