15 Academics Appear Before Judge in 2 Courtrooms

Click to read the article in Turkish

Trials of academics, who signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime" released by the Academics for Peace, continued at 34th and 36th Heavy Penal Courts at İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan.

36th Heavy Penal Court rejected the demand for immediate acquittal, approved the demand the file of the first case be asked from the 13th Heavy Penal Court.

34th Heavy Penal Court rejected the demands for immediate acquittal and for appeal to the Constitutional Court. Excuse and demand for extension of time of an academic who didn't attend the hearing today were accepted.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Başak Can Bulut (Koç University / Faculty of Humanities and Literature), Assist. Prof. Dr. Umut Şah (Arel University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences), Research Fellow Egemen Cevahir (discharged from Marmara University Faculty of Medical Sciences), Dr. Funda Karapehlivan (discharged from the Marmara University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences), Assist. Prof. Dr. T. Deniz Erkmen (Özyeğin Universit, Faculty of Social Sciences), Assist. Prof. Dr. Erdem Yörük (Koç University, Department of Sociology), Fırat Erdoğmuş (Bahçeşehir University, Faculty of Communication), Prof. Dr. Ayla Zırh Gürsoy (retired from Marmara University, Faculty of Pharmacy), Nihat Kotluk (doctorate student at Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Education, discharged as he was working at physics teacher at the Ministry of National Education), Zeynep Dadak (Kadir Has University), Elif Demirkaya (Arel University), Prof. Dr. Beyza Üstün (retired from Yıldız Teknik University, Faculty of Civil Engineering), Senem Timuroğlu (Özyeğin University, Faculty of Social Sciences), Zeynep Dadak (Kadir Has University), Suncem Koçer (Kadir Has University/Faculty of Communication).

The academics who signed the declaration are charged with "terrorist organization propaganda" under Article 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Act (3713) in the bill of indictment prepared by Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt. Trials began on December 5. So far, 121 defendants have had their first hearings, and 16 of these have also had their second.

What happened?

On January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled "We will not be party to this crime" on behalf of the Academics for Peace initiative.

On March 10, 2016, Asst. Prof. Dr. Esra Mungan, Asst. Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy and Asst. Prof. Dr. Meral Camcı read out the press statement at a press conference that was was held on behalf of the Academics for Peace/Istanbul group regarding the developments which had occurred since the declaration was first shared with the public.

The first three of these academics were arrested on the charge of "terrorist propaganda" on March 15, 2016, and the last, Camcı, who was abroad at the time, was arrested on March 31 when she returned to Turkey. The four academics were released on April 22, 2016 upon their first hearing, in which the prosecutor of the trial changed the charges pressed against the academics to the crimes regulated under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (insulting Turkey, the Turkish nation, or Turkish government institutions) and applied for authorization from the Ministry of Justice to hold the trial under the new article.

Another bill of indictment was prepared in October 2017 regarding at least 148 academics who signed the declaration. The academics were charged with "terrorist organization propaganda" under Article 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Act (#3713) in the bill of indictment prepared by Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt. The first hearings were held on December 5.

By February 6, 2018, 106 defendants have had their first hearings, and 16 of these have also had their second. (BK/TK)