PanARMENIAN.Net
Orhan Pamuk may stand new trial
04.08.2007 14:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld an
Istanbul 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 Istanbul’s Sisli 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, Today’s Zaman
reports.