Ertuğrul Mavioğlu Acquitted in First Hearing

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Journalist Ertuğrul Mavioğlu has stood trial for "insulting the president" with his tweet concerning the Suruç massacre that took place on July 20, 2015 and claimed 33 lives. Mavioğlu has been acquitted on grounds that he was not proven guilty of the offense.

Mavioğlu, facing up to 4 years and 8 months in prison, attended the hearing at Istanbul's 33rd Criminal Court of First Instance along with his attorney Rozerin Seda Kip.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Turkey Representative Erol Önderoğlu also observed the hearing.

Plaintiff: Erdoğan

Mavioğlu was tried for his tweet, "Take your 400 MPs and give us our 30 children back, you lowly murderer," dated July 20, 2015. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is listed as the plaintiff.

In the hearing, Mavioğlu criticized Umut Tepe, the prosecutor who prepared the indictment, for wrongfully and vaguely dating the tweet to "the year 2016", and emphasized that "This tweet was sent after the Suruç massacre on July 20, 2015, in which 33 people were killed."

Mavioğlu expressed that anyone who still retained their humane values had felt great pain and resentment in the face of the massacre.

Also pointing out that those in favor of massacre and in support of the killings of these young people had cropped up in Twitter following the incident, Mavioğlu said: "Less than a month and a half had gone by since the June 7, 2015 elections when those linking the massacre to the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) failure to secure 400 seats in parliament started using fake accounts to attack the deceased youths with hateful words."

Mavioğlu said the following:

"This mentality could only be the harbinger of new massacres to come. I think it will become clear what I mean when we recall how, as predicted, the bomb that was detonated in front of the Ankara Train Station on October 10, 2015 during the meeting preparations of labor organizations led to 109 more people losing their lives and hundreds more wounded.

"I and people like me who are against these massacres are being tried for making condemnatory statements at the cost of having the judiciary bend over backwards. But isn't it strange that in a country that, at every opportunity, is said to have rule of law, there is not a single investigation, which could provide some hope that good will conquer evil, against those spewing hatred and who are in favor of these massacres?

"These cases only serve to stall justice"

In his statement to the prosecutor's office, Mavioğlu requested his acquittal, pointing out his 30-year career as a journalist and stating: "I said that if I wanted to criticize the president, I have the capacity to do so directly, writing his name in full."

Immediate acquittal verdict

The judge at Istanbul's 33rd Criminal Court of First Instance read the documents in the case and indicated that Erdoğan's lawyers had sent a notice of dismissal to drop the case on August 3, 2016.

The ruling court did not act on the notice of dismissal but returned an acquittal on grounds that Mavioğlu was not proven to be guilty. (EA/PU)