Presiding Judge: I Cannot Deal With Rogatory

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One academic, who has been charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for signing the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" prepared by the Academics for Peace, had her first hearing at 37th Heavy Penal Court in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse.

Research Assistant Esra Demir Gürsel, who has been discharged from the Faculty of Law at Marmara University, could not attend the hearing as she has been continuing her academic work abroad.

Her attorney Benan Molu has requested that her client give her deposition in the country where she currently is and the deposition be sent to the court (regatory); the case at 37th Heavy Penal Court be joined with the case at 13th Heavy Penal Court and a permission be received from the Ministry of Justice as per the Turkish Penal Law No. 301. Her requests have been rejected. Next hearing has been adjourned to October 16, 2018 at 10 a.m.

The hearings against signatory academics started on December 5, 2017. As of March 27, 165 people had their first hearings and 30 of them had the second. Three academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison, and the sentences were suspended.

The members of the court board were as follows:

Presiding Judge: Erdoğan Şimşek,

Members: Serkan Baş, Kadir Alpar,

Prosecutor: Can Tümer Keriş

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, 2017.

As of March 27, 165 people had their first hearings and 30 of them had the second. Three academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison, and the sentences were suspended. (BK/SD)