Prison Sentence for 1 Fine Arts Associate Professor, Statements of Defence by 5 Academics

Click to read the article in Turkish

Trials of academics, who have been charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime" prepared by the Academics for Peace, continued in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse yesterday (April 24).

The 36th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Assoc. Prof. Merve Didem Dayı-Tirek from the Department of Fine Arts at Marmara University to 1 year and 3 months in prison at her second hearing. Prison sentence of Dayı-Tirek has been suspended.

Özgür Müftüoğlu, Ayşe Durakbaşa, Erol Katırcıoğlu, Cihan Yapıştıran and Yüksel Taşkın from Marmara University and İsmet Akça, Tuba İnal Çekiç and Seçil Ercan from İstanbul Technical University also had their second hearings at the 33rd Heavy Penal Court.

Presenting their statements of defence, Özgür Müftüoğlu, Ayşe Durakbaşa, Cihan Yapıştıran, Yüksel Taşkın and İsmet Akça denied the accusations and requested their acquittal. While Tuba İnal Çekiç and Seçil Ercan did not attend the hearings, their attorneys were present at the court. The hearing of Erol Katırcıoğlu was not held as his attorney had presented an excuse.

The next hearings of the academics will be held on June 21 and 22.

The hearings against signatory academics started on December 5, 2017. As of April 24, 191 academics had their first hearings. 13 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison and all of the sentences were suspended, except for that of Prof. Dr. Zübeyde Füsun Üstel from Galatasaray University.

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 April 24, 191 academics had their first hearings. 13 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison and all of the sentences were suspended, except for that of Prof. Dr. Zübeyde Füsun Üstel from Galatasaray University. (BK/SD)