Prisoner's letter censored for ‘targeting’ the judge of a high criminal court

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Behind bars in the Gebze Women's Prison, convict Selda Karataş's letter has been banned on the grounds that she mentioned Akın Gürlek, the Presiding Judge of the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court.

In its "decision on evaluation of objectionable letter" dated December 28, 2021, the Gebze Prison Administration argued that judge Akın Gürlek was pointed as a target in the letter of Selda Karataş.

Referring to "the letter which begins with the greeting 'Esteemed Ms. Ayça...' and its pages numbered as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 following the 3rd line on the first page", the decision has said that "the name of Akın Gürlek, the judge of her file, is mentioned and a misstatement is made about him."

The prison administration has further argued: "...by publicizing his name as the judge of the files of people known in the media such as [jailed politician] Selahattin Demirtaş, [main opposition CHP İstanbul Chair] Canan Kaftancıoğlu and Ebru Timtik [a lawyer who lost her life on a death fast for a fair trial], she pointed judge Akın Gürlek as a target."

Setting out to express the unlawfulness in her own court case, Selda Karataş's letter has been censored with the related parts crossed out.

About Akın Gürlek

Akın Gürlek, the Presiding Judge of the 14th Heavy Penal Court, was mentioned in the application made to the Constitutional Court about the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) trial.

The related petition referred to him as follows:

"Presiding Judge Akın Gürlek was on duty in the investigation and prosecution phases of the other files related to the trial of the applicants. As the Judge of a Penal Court of Peace, he took part in the investigation where B.E. gave a statement as a confessor to benefit from effective repentance in the applicants' file, in B.E.'s arrest and the prosecution of B.E. as a confessor while he was the Presiding Judge of the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court.

"As the Presiding Judge of the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court, Akın Gürlek also sentenced Cumhuriyet newspaper reporter Canan Coşkun to 2 years, 3 months in prison on charge of 'turning a counterrorism official into a target' by making news on B.E. (...) In another trial where İ.Ö., who was a witness in the lawyers' case, was a defendant, Gürlek took his testimony."

In this trial, Gürlek sentenced ÇHD lawyers to over 159 years in prison.

He was also the Presiding Judge of the court which sentenced CHP İstanbul Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu to 9 years, 8 months in prison and gave prison sentences to Sözcü journalists on charge of "willingly and knowingly aiding the FETÖ," which is held responsible for the coup attempt in 2016.

Gürlek ruled that former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş should be sentenced to 4 years, 8 months and former HDP MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder to 3 years, 6 months in prison.

He also gave prison sentences to current Chair of Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Şebnem Korur Fincancı and Gençay Gürsoy in the trial of Academics for Peace, who faced terror charges for having signed the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime."

He has recently defied the Constitutional Court ruling of "right violation" for Enis Berberoğlu and ruled that "there is no need for retrial."

He is currently the Presiding Judge of the court that hears the Hrant Dink murder case filed into the assassination of the journalist. (AS/SD)