Taksim Protesters Go on Trial in Turkey

Turkish activists who helped launch mass anti-government protests last year will go on trial on Thursday in what critics have said is a further attempt to crush dissenting voices.

Twenty-six alleged leaders of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of civil society, union and political groups, face up to 29 years in prison for their part in the demonstrations that marked the biggest challenge yet to the 11-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The charges include founding a crime syndicate, violating public order and organizing illegal protests through social media.

Last June's protests started as a small environmentalist movement to stop the re-development of Istanbul's Gezi Park and quickly blew up into wider nationwide demonstrations against Erdogan's authoritarian style.

Those going on trial on Thursday include doctors, architects and engineers who led the protests that left at least eight people dead and some 8,000 injured after police brutally cracked down on protesters.

The activist group was formed in 2012 after the government announced plans to redevelop Gezi Park, one of the last remaining green spaces in central Istanbul, and neighboring Taksim Square, the country's most symbolic rallying point.

The group met Erdogan at the height of the unrest to discuss the protesters' demands, only to be accused by the premier of being "traitors" aiming to destabilize the government.

Mucella Yapici, 63, general secretary of Istanbul Chamber of Architects is one of the key accused. She told AFP she was briefly detained by police, who stripped her naked and deprived her of medication for a range of chronic illnesses.

But she said she was not afraid to spend the rest of her life behind bars.

"I've lived a full life. It doesn't matter where I spend the rest of it when you consider that a 14-year-old boy has been killed," she said, referring to Berkin Elvan who died of injuries sustained during the unrest.

Her lawyer Turgut Kazan told AFP there was not enough evidence that a crime organization had been formed.

"There is only one sentence in the indictment that suggests why my client is being accused of founding a crime organization: 'Because she came together with other people'," he said.

Also going on trial is Ali Cerkezoglu, secretary general of the Istanbul Medical Chamber, who treated several wounded protesters.

In January, Turkey passed a new law making it a crime for doctors to provide emergency first aid without a permit, which critics said was an attempt to block doctors from treating protesters.

Several trials related to the protests are already taking place across the country, but Thursday's trial has the highest profile.

"The only goal of this case is to scare people. Prosecutors hand-picked a person from each social group with the aim of putting them in jail. They want to show that anyone, regardless of their age, profession or background, can be prosecuted for being a protester," said Baki Boga, of the Human Rights Association Turkey.

"This is a politically-motivated case aimed at completely wiping out the dissenting voices in Turkey."

The government did not go ahead with plans to demolish the park, but it has become a site of frequent clashes between police and protesters. Dozens were injured on the anniversary of last year's protest on May 31.