Doctors Acquitted of Terror Charges

Prof. Dr Osman Küçükosmanoğlu and Dr. Ömer Eşki were acquitted at their first hearing before the Adana Special Authority High Criminal Court on Monday (27 June).

They were taken into police custody on 29 April 2011 because of their speeches given at a panel discussion with the topic "health in the mother tongue" held in the Adana Tent for a Democratic Solution (of the Kurdish question).

Charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" had been pressed against both physicians. Küçükosmanoğlu is a lecturer at the Department of Paediatric Cardiology of the Çukurova University Medical School. Eşki is a board member of the Medical Chamber of Adana, a city on the eastern tip of the Mediterranean. Anti-terror units took them into custody and hand-cuffed them at the hospitals they were working at which created a storm of protest in the Turkish media.

Both doctors were released pending trial. On Monday, the Adana court decided for their acquittal. Representatives of the Turkish Medical Association and the Turkish Medical Chamber, physicians, workers from the health sector and union representatives gathered in front of the Adana Courthouse to express their support for Küçükosmanoğlu and Eşki.

In an announcement made after the hearing it was stated, "This trial was not necessary at all and the decision for acquittal leaves a bittersweet happiness. These two doctors were handcuffed and the pictures were readily presented to the media. Everything was done, especially in legal terms, to discredit them in public, show them as criminals and to threaten doctors and the society with this application". (IC/ŞA/VK)