No Evidence to Prosecute Barbaros Şansal, Says Court

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İstanbul 43rd Criminal Court of First Instance has rejected the indictment prepared against fashion designer Barbaros Şansal on charge of “inciting people to animosity and enmity” on the ground that “There is no certain and convincing evidence”.

Complainant: Presidency

In the indictment, Presidency on behalf of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the complainant.

Prosecutor Umut Tepe sent the indictment demanding 3 years in prison due to some of Şansal’s tweets to court on February 3.

Court: IP numbers don’t match

Attorney Efkan Bolaç representing Şansal told bianet the court didn’t accept the indictment today (February 6).

“The reason behind court’s rejection is that it has yet to be proved that the tweets allegedly posted by Şansal were actually his tweets.

“In its rejection, the court wrote the IP number of the tweets posted from İstanbul while Şansal was in Cyprus doesn’t match with the IP number of Şansal in Cyprus, and that no evidence was shown in the indictment as to how Şansal tweeted from İstanbul while he was in Cyprus”.

Şansal was asked of two tweets during his questioning. For one of the tweets, Şansal had said “I wrote it to stress with my humorous style that this is not a religious or sectarian conflict” and that for the other, Şansal had stated that it was not him who posted it.

Barbaros Şansal is in Silivri Prison since January 3.

“Since the court ruled that there is presently no evidence, we expect a decision of release and acquittal when it studies the indictment”.

What had happened?

Fashion designer Barbaros Şansal had shared a video on social media saying "Are you still celebrating the new year while so many journalists are under arrest, so many children are being harassed and raped, there is so much fraud, bribery and bigots share crap on the streets together with religious annunciators".

Stating that he shared the video in Northern Cyrpus, Şansal had drawn some circles' reaction for saying "I hope you die in your own shit Turkey".

Deported from Northern Cyprus due to his social media sharings following Reina attack, subjected to lynch attempt in Turkey and detained, Barbaros Şansal was detained following prosecution questioning on charge of "inciting people to hate and hostility" on January 4, 2017, and arrested on February 3, 2017. (AS/TK)