ELIF SHAFAK ACQUITTED BY COURT

Londra Gazete, UK
Turkish Community News of London
Sept 28 2006

BEST-selling novelist, Elif Shafak, has been cleared of ‘insulting
Turkishness’ on the first day of her trial.

The Istanbul court threw the case out on Thursday when the charges
against her were deemed groundless. The judge ruled there was a lack
of evidence after a thorough examination of her novel The Bastard
of Istanbul.

Shafak had been charged over a reference made by a character in the
book to the "genocide" of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire
in 1915.

A nationalist lawyer had taken exception to the events being described
as genocide.

Turkish nationalists, who had initiated the proceedings, were involved
in a clash with opponents of the trial after the court’s decision
was made known.

Shafak was charged under a controversial Turkish law, which the
European Union has criticised for violating freedom of speech.

Under the law, insulting the state and its institutions could lead
to a prison sentence of between six months and three years.

The author, who was not in court as she gave birth to a daughter five
days ago, said that she was delighted at the decision.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyýp Erdoðan welcomed the verdict
this week and signalled that the government could consider amending
Article 301 of the penal code.

"The ruling party and the opposition can sit down together again
to discuss this issue, as laws are not eternal," the Anatolia News
Agency quoted Mr Erdoðan as saying.

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