Birgün Columnist Fikri Sağlar Fined For His Article

The 1st Civil Court of First Instance of Ankara fined the newspaper Birgün and its columnist  Fikri Sağlar for attacking the personal rights of former Chief of Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt and his wife Filiz Büyükanıt in Sağlar's column titled “Büyükanıt’a Dosya Verildi mi?” (Was Büyükanıt given a file?).

The court accepted the suit for damages in the amount of 50 thousand euro, but ruled for only 8500 euro.

Rejection of recusation and dismissal requests

The column that appeared in Birgün on May 15, 2008 had claimed that the Prime Minister had given a file to Gen. Büyükanıt, Chief of Staff at the time, regarding his wife’s spending habits in the meeting that took place at Dolmabahçe Palace. The content of the file was supposedly forbidding.

All the lawyers, Levent Koçer for Büyükanıt and his wife, Osman Oğuzhan for Sağlar, and Mehdi Bektaş for Birgün, were present at the verdict hearing.

Judge Beyhan Azmen, head of the court, rejected the recusation request by lawyer Oğuzhan on the grounds that its purpose was to prolong the trial.

Koçer: There was no “Büyükanıt” document in Tolon’s house

Lawyer Oğuzhan’s demand to request for the information and the documents that were found in Gen. Hurşit Tolon’s house in connection with the Ergenekon investigation was rejected as well.

Telling the court that they were given a copy of the search document regarding Tolon’s house by the Military Prosecutor’s Office, Koçer, lawyer of the former Chief of Staff,  said that no information and document were found about Büyükanıt in Tolon’s house.

While stating that they would not make a demand of recusation, Birgün's lawyer Bektaş argued that they had made these publications for the public good and therefore this case should have been dismissed. However, the court decided there was no need to make any request for the said documents found in Tolon’s house and sentenced both Birgün and Sağlar to pay 5000 euro to Yaşar Büyükanıt and 3500 euro to Filiz Büyükanıt. (EÖ/TB)