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Trial 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 today (April 2).
12 academics had their hearings at six different courts:
At the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court: Assoc. Prof. Pınar Bedirhanoğlu from Middle East Technical University (METU) and Research Assistant Ceren Özcan from Ankara University had their first hearings.
At the İstanbul 36th Heavy Penal Court: Research Assistants Barış Göğüş and Kumru Çılgın, Prof. Dr. Ayşe Berkman and retired Lecturer Saadet Sorgunlu from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts (MSGSÜ) and PhD student Dilek Çankaya from Ankara University had their third hearings.
At the İstanbul 29th Heavy Penal Court: Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Altınel from the MSGSÜ had his third hearing.
At the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Emin Karaaslan from Işık University and Assoc. Prof. Erbatur Çavuşoğlu from the MSGSÜ had their second hearings.
At the İstanbul 33rd Heavy Penal Court: Assoc. Prof. Çakır Ceyhan Suvari from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University had his first hearing.
At the İstanbul 28th Heavy Penal Court: Assoc. Porf. Eylem Kılıç Oğurlu from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University had her first hearing.
Deferred prison sentence for one academic
Having her final hearing at the 36th Heavy Penal Court, Saadet Sorgunlu has been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK). The announcement of the verdict has been deferred.*
Rejection of venue for three academics
In the first hearings of academics Pınar Bedirhanoğlu, Ceren Özcan and Çakır Ceyhan Suvari held at the 26th and 33rd Heavy Penal Courts, the court boards have given a verdict of rejection of venue. While the files of Özcan and Bedirhanoğlu will be sent to the Ankara Heavy Penal Court on Duty, the file of Suvari will be sent to the Heavy Penal Court on Duty in Van.
At the İstanbul 28th Heavy Penal Court, the court board has rejected the request for rejection of venue raised by Eylem Kılıç Oğurlu, who also works at the Van Yüzüncü yıl University like Prof. Çakır Ceyhan Suvari, for whom the court has ruled for rejection of venue.
About the Trials of AcademicsOn 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. With the participation of further academics, the number of academics who have signed the declaration has reached 2,212. With the indictment issued by the Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt, lawsuits were filed against the academics on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713. As of April 2, 2019, 567 academics had stood trial since December 5, 2017, all the 170 academics whose cases were concluded have been sentenced to prison. 122 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison; 6 academics to 1 year and 6 months in prison; 15 academics to 1 year, 10 months and 15 days in prison; 16 academics to 2 years and 3 months in prison; five academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison; three academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison; and one academic to 3 years in prison. The suspension of the pronouncement of the verdict Until today, 12 academics have not accepted that the announcement of their verdicts be deferred. While seven of these academics have been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison, one academic has been sentenced to 1 year and 6 months, one academic to 2 years and 3 months, one academic to 2 years and 6 months and one academic to 3 years in prison. The verdict of one academic has not been pronounced by the court yet. The court board of the 36th Heavy Penal Court has reduced the prison sentences of academics who did not demand the suspension of the pronouncement of their verdicts and deferred their sentences on a 2-year probation. The 32nd Heavy Penal Court has made reductions in the sentences; however, it has not deferred them. The 37th Heavy Penal Court has neither reduced nor deferred the pronouncement of the verdicts. Three academics were not asked about whether they requested the suspension of the pronouncement of their verdicts. While one of these three academics has been sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison, one of them has been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months and the other academic to 2 year and 3 months in prison. The prison sentences of academics, the announcement of whose verdicts has not been suspended since their sentence is over two years, will be taken to the court of appeal. The court of appeal will either uphold or reverse the verdict. On March 10, 2016, the Academics for Peace made a statement for press and shared with the public what they had been going through since the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" was published. The academics Dr. Lecturer Esra Mungan, Dr. Lecturer Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy (March 15, 2016) and Dr. Lecturer Meral Camcı (March 31, 2016), who read out the statement for press, were arrested on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law. They were released on April 2016. Upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Justice granted a permission of trial as per the Article No. 301 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 301 on charges of "insulting the Turkish Nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey and the institutions and organs of the government." |
* As per the Article 231 of the Law on Criminal Courts (CMK), when a court rules that the announcement of a verdict shall be suspended or deferred, the verdict/sentence is removed in the event that the person does not commit an intentional crime in five years.
(TP/SD)