‘Good Conduct Time’ for Defendant Who Threatened LGBTIs, Fined 889 Euros

Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish

Third hearing of trial of Alperen Movement İstanbul Provincial Chair Mican, who has been tried due to his threats against Pride Week attendees, was heard at Kartal Courthouse today (December 14).

İstanbul LGBTI association, Human Rights Association (İHD), and Community Houses’ representatives participated in the hearing as complainants.

44th Criminal Judgeship of First Instance reduced Mican’s penalty from 4 years in prison he was sentenced to on charge of “inciting people to enmity and animosity”, to 4 thousand liras (889 euos).

Speaking to bianet, lawyer Eren Keskin stated that it is important that the defendant received a penalty but the decision is wrong and deficient.

“The defendant justified his act through Ankara Governorship’s decision of ban”

Keskin explained that the defendant must be punished since he explicitly committed hate crime according to the domestic law of Turkey and Article 14 of the European Court of Human Rights.

In his statement of defense, Mican justified his act through Ankara Governorship banning events organized by LGBTI NGOs, Keskin stated.

“His crime is very obvious. Despite that, we believe that the court applying good conduct time for a crime that includes death threats and insults encourages such offenses”.

What happened?

Ahead of the 7th İstanbul Trans Pride Parade planned to be held on June 19 and 14th İstanbul LGBTI+ Pride Parade planned to be held on June 26, some groups such as Müslüman Anadolu Gençliği (Muslim Anatolian Youth), Alperen Movement made calls for attacks and threats against the parades.

Alperen Movement made a statement for the press on June 14 in Üsküdar, İstanbul. Its İstanbul Provincial Chair Kürşat Mican said that if the state doesn’t prevent the parade, they will do as the “deep nation’s representatives”.

On June 17, İstanbul Governorship declared that neither of the parades will be “permitted”.

İstanbul LGBTI Association, Human Rights Association (İHD), SPoD, Pride Committee as well as many activists filed criminal complaints to the prosecutor’s office against the threats and governorship’s decision of ban.

Representatives of İstanbul LGBTI Association, İHD and Community Houses participated in the first hearing as complainants with eight lawyers. Neither Mican nor his lawyer attended the hearing.

Giving deposition in the second hearing, Mican claimed that he made that statement on his own behalf rather than Alperen Movement and said, “They marched even though the state didn’t permit them. State is everything for us. It has to look after all sensibilities and values of our nation”. (BK/TK)