PARIS COURT OF APPEALS ADJOURNS ITS VERDICT ON SEZGIN CASE

Turkish Press
Oct 25 2006

PARIS – Paris Court of Appeals on Thursday adjourned its verdict in
the lawsuit which was filed by Armenians in France against Turkey’s
Consul General Aydin Sezgin in Paris to October 25th.

The chief judge of the court said announcement of the verdict was
adjourned to October 25th because of the problems in the computer
system.

An association in France which defends so-called Armenian genocide,
applied to Paris Civil Court of First Instance and filed a lawsuit
against Consul General Sezgin after transmission of a text (that
opposes to so-called Armenian genocide allegations) on the Consulate
General’s formal web-page.

The French Chamber 17 last year refused the application on grounds
that Sezgin has diplomatic immunity.

In the case which was heard on September 6th after the Armenian
association applied to Appeals Court, the Chief Prosecutor expressed
his opinion that the case should be rejected.

In this lawsuit, Sezgin’s lawyers stated that Sezgin has diplomatic
immunity, there is freedom of speech and parliaments can not write
history. They stressed that a consul general could freely state the
formal views of his country in the country he was assigned, and asked
the court to reject the lawsuit.

On basis of the law acknowledging so-called Armenian genocide which
was adopted in the French parliament in 2001, lawyers of the Armenian
association defended that the Consul General could not express views
about several areas apart from defending the rights of his citizens
so he could not have diplomatic immunity.