Eylem Sonbahar
The trial of 23 people, including former employees of Etkin News Agency, was postponed once again.
The 30th hearing of the trial, in which 23 people including former editor of Etkin News Agency (ETHA) İsminaz Temel, former reporter of the agency Havva Cuştan, and lawyers from the People's Law Office (Ezilenlerin Hukuk Bürosu) are being tried on charges of “membership in an organization” and “making propaganda for an organization,” was held at Istanbul 27th High Criminal Court.
In the hearing, in which the defendants did not participate, the lawyers who were present requested before the hearing started that, if there were plainclothes police officers in the courtroom, they be removed. Thereupon, two plainclothes police officers in the courtroom exited. In the hearing followed also by representatives from the French bar, lawyer İbrahim Ergün said, “I criticize your saying to do the defense in the morning and that we will decide in the afternoon. Actually, what we want is not an expansion of the investigation, but the completion of the investigation. I understand your desire to finish the case. We request that a decision be made regarding our written petitions.”
Lawyer İlknur Alcan also said, “From the very beginning, I reviewed all the records one by one. There is nothing stemming from us,” after which the presiding judge said, “As required by the right to a fair trial.”
Lawyer Mustafa Taylan Savran said that his client Mehmet Aslan had been arrested under a different case file and that he requested his presence at the verdict hearing. He also said that, in a case opened at Istanbul 29th Criminal Court of First Instance against two of his clients on the grounds of participating in funeral ceremonies, an acquittal decision was issued on the charged offense and that the decision was finalized at the appeals stage. Savran requested that these decisions be summoned to the case file for review.
The court decided to send an official letter to the relevant law enforcement authority to ask whether there are any video recordings related to the date of the alleged crime regarding some of the defendants, and to request records prepared by the Istanbul Anti-Terror Branch regarding demonstrations and commemorations on the dates of the incidents. The court ruled to continue the travel ban against the defendants and gave time to the defense attorneys to submit their defense statements against the merits. The hearing was postponed to October 22 at 10:00 a.m.
