COURT CLEARS TURKISH WRITER OF INSULT CHARGES

RTE.ie, Ireland
Dec 20 2006

A Turkish court has cleared author Ipek Calislar of insulting modern
Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Prosecutors had claimed that Calislar insulted Ataturk when she said,
in a biography of his wife Latife, that he had once left his palace
disguised as a woman to evade an assassination attempt.

She was being charged under Article 301 of the country’s penal code
and faced up to four years in prison under Turkey’s tough law against
insulting "Turkishness".

Calislar is one of several writers to be accused of Article 301
violations.

Turkish novelists Elif Shafak, Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk have all
been charged under Article 301 for their accounts of the alleged
Armenian genocide.

Shafak was acquitted and Pamuk’s charges were dismissed, while Dink
still faces a retrial.