‘Let this crime fall upon those who constructed this paper tower’

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Standing trial as per the Article 329/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and the Article 27 of the Law on State Intelligence Services and National Intelligence Organization due to the news regarding the funeral of a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officer killed in Libya, Oda TV News Director Barış Terkoğlu had his second hearing at the İstanbul 34th Heavy Penal Court. We are publishing his full statement as to the accusations.

CLICK - Journalists on trial for revealing identity of intelligence officer

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Your Honor, esteemed members of the tribunal,

Today you are going to reach a verdict about me.

With all due respect, I must say that I do not have much curiosity about and I do not attach importance to whatever the final verdict is.

Because, the "chosen suspects" like me know that such cases have a common characteristic: The verdict has already been reached even before the investigation opens. Your punishment is set even before you are detained by the police. Instead of conducting a proper investigation and preparing a decent indictment, the prosecutors spend all their energy in leaking the accusations to their henchmen in the pro-government media and all the charges become obvious before the hearing. In cases such as OdaTV, we can never be sure whether the indictment has been written on the prosecutor's computer or in a department of a pro-government newspaper.

If, however, a person fulfills their life's ambition through their own deeds, the real verdict can only be the one which they will write for themselves.

Esteemed members of the tribunal,

Three months ago, when this tribunal said its decision to release me, I left the hearing room sorrowfully. When bidding farewell to my colleague Barış Pehlivan, he ironically reminded me that we should stop seeing each other in prison and our next meeting should be outside upon his release and not in prison upon my incarceration again. I have not been incarcerated throughout these three months, but had to face certain aspects of the judiciary system.

I guess all of you have read the news: A sheikh of a religious sect, whom we often saw in the state protocol and before whom many high-ranked officials bowed their heads with respect, had been sexually abusing a child. We followed the traces of the event for days and saw that the sheikh was so powerful that the people were afraid of telling what they had been going through. The father of the abused child was severely beaten in front of the gendarmerie and his bones were broken. The family was receiving threats.

Someone had to raise a voice. We covered the case. It stirred a public outcry, all the country heard of it. Although, not surprisingly, an investigation has been opened on us, we have no regret whatsoever for doing the right thing.

We broadcasted the telephone conversations in which the sheikh confessed his deed. And remarkably, he uttered more than once the word "OdaTV". He expressed his fear saying that "If OdaTV writes this, I am doomed."

Esteemed members of the tribunal;

This sheikh commits a great sin by abusing the religious beliefs of ordinary people and by deceiving them in many other ways and he has no fear of God.

This charlatan, who has years of close ties with state officials, has no fear of justice.

But he has a fear of OdaTV which he cursed unceasingly.

I am at peace with myself. "That is how journalism should be," I say to myself. Without opposing the authorities, without fighting the establishment, without confronting the powerful ones, you cannot get rid of the corruption in a society. I assure you that whenever you try to extend beyond what is given to you, a prosecutor comes out to say "Stop there! Know your place!"

And the only aim of this very case in which we stand trial right now is to stop us and to say to us "Know your place!" Therefore, I declare it void.

The Disclosure is in the Indictment of the Prosecutor

Your Honor, esteemed members of the tribunal,

In romantic movies, you often see lovers walking hand in hand in the countryside. They accidentally step on an iron track of a railroad that is not functional for years. Tracks of this forgotten railroad here and there are buried under soil, covered with grass upon which cows and sheep are grazing. That is where we were struck by a train.

My point is simple:

In 1984, it was the newspapers where all Turkey read the interrogation of Dündar Kılıç (a well-known mafia leader) conducted by the secret service (MİT). In 1985, we learned from media Behçet Cantürk's statement to the MİT.

The MİT officials themselves appeared on TV channels to narrate the secret MİT operations against ASALA.

Unless the Turkish media published the 1st and 2nd MİT reports, no one would know the existence of them. Just remember that in the 2000s, Mehmet Eymür, a high-ranked MİT official, escaped to the US with the documents of MİT, unceasingly broadcasted from there the secret documents and we all read them.

You can of course argue that the sharpened Secret Service Law (MİT Kanunu) enacted in 2014 was a turning point...

But we have more recent examples, too.

I randomly examine the newspapers and see that, just two months before our detention, a case about a killed MİT official resulted and the newspaper published the official's photo along with his name.

The son of the director of the MİT got married and his wedding was covered in the newspapers with his name and photos.
Some MİT officials were involved in criminal cases and again they were largely published in the newspapers.

On 25 July 2018, statesmen took part in the funeral ceremony of the deceased mother of a MİT official and the newspapers published the photo of the ceremony.

In our case, the prosecutor accuses us about revealing the relatives of a dead MİT agent;

But the pro-government media showed the uncle of another dead MİT agent on TV, who talked about his nephew. Or, MİT prepared a documentary in which a dead official's daughter talked about her father. The documentary was broadcasted on the website of the MİT.

This has become so common that on the day I was arrested, the pro-government media interviewed a MİT official disclosing his name and surname. This official talked about the inconveniencies for a secret service official of being disclosed.

As to our case, the same prosecutors who accuse us have recently finished writing the indictment of the case known as "the 7 February MİT plot." In that indictment, they disclosed the name, surname of a MİT official –who had been the target of FETO– along with his date of birth and birthplace, his parents' name, and even his ID number. If you have a look at that indictment, on page 43, news and articles on MİT were listed as references. Not a single of them was investigated according to the secret service law.

The opening ceremony of the newly constructed MİT building was broadcasted live, the intelligence officials appeared on this broadcast, the MİT buildings were revealed. The official news agency of the Turkish state narrated MİT's operations abroad.

Even we, in our book Mahrem, described the FETO by reference to the MIT documents included in the case files.

In short, esteemed members of the tribunal, the Ottoman law Mecelle says that "A bad example cannot be deemed an example," but also "There is no offense if everyone is the offender."

The Secret Service Law which had been in action since 1983 and which was sharpened in 2014 has already been buried under the soil. Obviously, some were in search of a pretext to punish us and extracted it from the soil with hard work. They created a law that only applies to the suspects of this specific case.

Your decision should include the following points:

Your Honor, esteemed members of the tribunal,

You are going to reach a verdict. As I said at the beginning, I do not have much curiosity about it. But I have these humble expectations:

Your decision should involve an answer to why only these two news and tweets were chosen and only these eight people became suspects from among thousands of similar news circulated from 19 February to the OdaTV report on 3 March.

Your decision should involve an answer to how the information which, until 3 March, had already widely circulated on Facebook, Twitter, which became public with the statements of the president, with press conferences in the national assembly, which was covered even in the African media channels, could still be considered confidential.

Your decision should involve an answer to how a funeral ceremony which was organized with the participation of hundreds of people, to which attended a deputy and a mayor, to which the director of MİT sent a wreath, in which all the protocol posed for the photo, could still be considered top secret.

Your decision should involve an answer to why the prosecutors who had done nothing for the circulation of reports between 19 February and 3 March, suddenly decided to step forward at the night of 3 March, without even waiting until after the sunset, woke me up from sleep and got me detained by an order not even written but given on the phone.

Your decision should involve an answer to why the prosecutors who have been disclosing the identities of secret service agents in their indictments, suddenly remembered the MİT Law.

Your decision should involve an answer to how the prosecutors leaked information to their henchmen in the media about a confidential case file inaccessible even for the lawyers of the suspects.

And one more point about myself:

Your decision should involve an answer to how being the "news director" of the OdaTV could be sufficiently deemed as a crime.

Eventually, they will be the ones to be embarrased.

Esteemed members of the tribunal;

Considering this short news report in question and the investigation as a malicious response to it, this indictment and legal opinion of the prosecutor, seeing this special punishment mechanism which held six people in isolation, remembering the draft law specially amended for us to stay in prison, I conclude that this case aims to invent a crime and not to find a criminal.

This case is an abuse of the law, is itself a crime. This case is an attempt to confront justice with a law.

As I said before, we, the journalists sometimes say "pro jure contra legem" "against the laws for the sake of justice." In this quagmire which became boggier with abuse of the laws, we try to carry justice on our heads to keep it clean.

There are things we have told and things untold.

There are things we remember, things we keep in our memory and never forget.

We know the answers to all the extraordinary practices we experienced throughout this investigation. One day, when all these can be discussed openly, I am sure that we will not be the ones who will be embarrassed.

Esteemed members of the tribunal,

In this hearing room, naturally, you have a higher seat while we stand down here. But I address you as a citizen of this country having equal rights with you.

I have been tried many times by criminal courts since 2009 when I covered the dinner of judges, prosecutors, and police officers conducting conspiracies through law cases. I was imprisoned and released, imprisoned again, and released the second time, I will not hesitate to be imprisoned and released the third time.

I demand justice not for myself but for my country; I sincerely hope that your decision shall not be a mere extension of this investigation, of this case, of this indictment, the existence of which is itself a crime. Let this crime fall upon those who constructed this paper tower. (HA/SD)

* Source: TRFreePress