TURKEY: NEW JUDGE PROLONGS CONVERTS’ TRIAL
Compass Direct News, CA
Oct 4 2007
President calls for change in controversial free speech law.
LOS ANGELES, October 4 (Compass Direct News) – A new judge has
prolonged the case of two Turkish converts to Christianity after
his predecessor resigned under pressure from the plaintiffs’
ultranationalist lawyer.
At a September 26 hearing, his first in the 12-month case, Judge
Metin Tamirci set the Christians’ next court date for November 29.
Defendants Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal had hoped for a quick
dismissal of charges of insulting "Turkishness" at their last hearing
on September 12 after the state prosecutor said in July that there
was no evidence against them.
But Judge Neset Eren prolonged the case when he told the Silivri
court, 45 miles west of Istanbul, that he was stepping down. He said
he hoped to "distance the court’s decision from any form of indecision
or doubt."
Eren’s announcement came after the plaintiff’s ultranationalist
lawyer, Kemal Kerincsiz, called for his resignation, accusing the
judge of failing to deal with the case impartially. Kerincsiz has
raised a number of cases against Turkish intellectuals, including
Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, under article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code for "degrading Turkishness."
A higher court in Bakirkoy, Istanbul accepted Eren’s resignation
on September 13. Defense lawyer Haydar Polat said that despite the
change of judge and a new state prosecutor, he was still 99 percent
sure that his clients would be acquitted.
"There is no crime to be found, we’ll just have wait and see if the
state prosecutor agrees with us," Polat said.
In addition to insulting Turkish identity, Tastan and Topal are charged
with reviling Islam and secretly compiling files on private citizens
for a local Bible correspondence course.
At a hearing in July, State Prosecutor Ahmet Demirhuyuk called for
the Christians’ release, saying there was no credible evidence against
them. He said that the plaintiffs had give contradictory testimonies
and failed to offer evidence that the Christians had cursed Turkey
and Islam.
A new prosecutor has been present at each of the subsequent hearings.
Lawyer Polat said that the case could be prolonged if the judge decides
to call on further witnesses from Silvri’s gendarmerie. The military
police had ordered the initial investigation of Tastan and Topal.
New Turkish President Abdullah Gul yesterday called on the government
to change article 301 of the Turkish penal code. The controversial
article outlaws "degrading Turkishness, the Republic, the State or
its institutions."
Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg, France on his first official visit abroad, Gul claimed
that the article had caused unfair criticism of Turkey.
"Nobody was sent to prison under article 301," Gul said, according
to the Turkish Daily News (TDN).
Writers have often been prosecuted for insulting "Turkishness" when
they challenge the Turkish state’s version of historical events,
such as the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians following
World War I, TDN reported yesterday. More than 100 writers were tried
under the controversial law in 2005 and 2006, according to an April
release from Human Rights Watch.
Last month, Turkey’s Human Rights Association reported that during the
first half of 2007, another 17 trials had been opened under article
301. Apart from ongoing trials, all cases have ended in suspended
sentences or acquittals.
European Union officials have repeatedly called on Turkey to abolish
the controversial law in order to bring their legal system in line
with European standards of free speech.
END
*** Photographs of Hakan Tastan, Turan Topal, their lawyers and
ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz are available electronically.
Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
php?page=lead&lang=en&length=long&idel ement=5062