APPEALS COURT BACKS PAMUK CASE DISMISSAL
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 3 2007
The Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld an Ýstanbul court’s
earlier decision to dismiss the case of Nobel Prize-winning Turkish
author Orhan Pamuk, who was on trial on charges of "denigrating
Turkishness."
The Second Court of First Instance in Ýstanbul’s Þiþli district had
earlier dismissed the charges on the grounds that the necessary
permission from the Justice Ministry to launch a probe into the
author had not been issued, a requirement under the former penal code,
which was being applied to Pamuk’s case.
The charges relate to a magazine interview in which Pamuk claimed that
30,000 Kurds and 1 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in Turkey.
The high-profile prosecution had caused a stir globally, raising
serious concerns about EU-hopeful Turkey’s commitment to the basic
democratic principle of free speech. A delegation of European
parliamentarians had traveled to Istanbul to observe the trial
alongside international human rights campaigners.
–Boundary_(ID_TWU/MQNWlPYljXg5UO0ez g)–