Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 9 2008
Supreme Court of Appeals elects new president with mixed record
The Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday voted in its new president,
Hasan Gerçeker, who is known for his secular, Kemalist leanings and
who is seen as having a mixed record on issues pertinent to democracy
and freedom.
The new president has for five years led panels of judges that have
issued some democratic rulings as well as some anti-free speech
decisions.
Gerçeker is also a founding member of the first and largest civil
society organization of judges and prosecutors, YAR-SAV, which was
founded despite opposition from the Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) government.
Gerçeker has been the president of the 9th Chamber of the Supreme
Court of Appeals since 2002 and a member of the top court since 1995.
In the past five years since he has been its president, the chamber
has issued some controversial decisions, in addition to some
decisions widely regarded as promoting the cause of freedom, in some
of Turkey’s most historically significant cases. The 9th chamber
hears cases on armed organized crime, including crimes that fall
under the scope of anti-terror legislation, crimes against state
security and state secrets, and violations of the constitution.
Under Gerçeker’s leadership, the panel of judges approved a court
decision that charged Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink with
violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which
criminalizes "insulting Turkishness." However, the same panel of
judges ruled against Kemal Kerinçsiz, a neo-nationalist lawyer whose
links with a deep-state gang were revealed only very recently, who
had requested to take part in the trial against Dink, and in another
301-related trial against Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, as
a co-plaintiff lawyer. The court also issued a decision that led to
the dropping of charges against Pamuk.
It was also under his presidency of the 9th chamber that the chamber
overruled a decision sentencing two noncommissioned officers and a
former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member-turned-informant to 39
years in jail for bombing a bookstore in the Southeast. The case was
seen as a test of democracy for Turkey as it had revealed links
between the military and certain crimes previously attributed to
terrorists. High-ranking members of the military had appeared
publicly to defend the suspects during their initial trial at a civil
court in Van. The 9th court overturned the sentences and referred the
three suspects to a military court for a retrial from scratch.
09.02.2008