Torture News Condemned as Accused Walk Free

Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals condemned three police officers of torture but they got acquired by prescription. On the other hand, Cumhuriyet daily reporter Alper Turgut has been fined to 20 thousand YTL (about 11 thousand euros) of causing "prejudice to a court's decision" because of his article on the trial.

As a result, only a journalist had been punished in the torture case despite high court's ruling that acquiescence of the alleged crime.

Police officers walk free

Istanbul 7th High Criminal Court dropped the case in question on grounds of prescription on December 6, 2006.

The same court had acquitted the defendant police officers Mahmut Yıldız, Şeref Bayrakçı and Mehmet Hallaç on September 30, 2004. They were charged with allegations of torture to three suspects taken under custody for being a member to an illegal leftist organization called "Ekim".

The case was then taken to the Supreme Court of Appeals, where the judges overruled the court's decision and demanded that the police officers should be penalized of the alleged crime. The Supreme Court took into account the medical jurisprudence reports that predicated physical evidence to the allegations of torture.

As the case returned to for a reexamination, 7th High Criminal Court dropped the case on prescription as the incident took place on November 15 1998 and the legal time limit of 7 and a half years was passed.

Article 19 of the Press Law

Although the police officers walked out on the case, journalist Turgut, who relayed the news got condemned of causing "prejudice to a court's decision".

In his article Tugut wrote, "despite scientific evidence of torture provided by a university, three police officers got acquitted".

Article 19 of the Press Law prohibits the publication of prosecution's judgments or other documentation relevant to the case between the preliminary investigation and the court's decision to file or drop the case depending on that investigation.(EO/EÜ)