"Police Settle old Scores with Avcı"

57 defendants stand trial before the Beşiktaş/Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court in the context of the Revolutionary Headquarters trial that was continued on Monday (6 February). Twelve defendants are in detention, including members of the legal groups Social Freedom Party Initiative (TÖPG) and Socialist Democracy Party (SDP).

In the previous hearing the detained defendants demanded not to be prosecuted together with Hanefi Avcı, former Eskişehir Chief of Police and also a detained defendant of this trial. Avcı made an according written request and thereupon his statement was taken separately.

Avcı's wife Şenay Avcı is being tried without arrest. The court announced that her statement would take a long time and that nobody but lawyers and deputies were allowed in the courtroom meanwhile. However, after a wave of protest also the remaining audience was allowed to follow the session.

Hanefi Avcı presented his defence. Lawyer Refik Ali Uçarcı rejected charges of "possessing an unlicensed weapon" pressed against Şenay Avcı.

The lawyer requested to exempt Şenay Avcı from the hearings because she was allegedly suffering from depression.

"These are different organizations"

Hanefi Avcı read certain parts of e-mail and telephone records obtained from reports of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) as part of the case file of another Revolutionary Headquarters trial to be opened. After reading MSN communications of Okan Duman, Avcı said:

"There is a significant difference between the real Revolutionary Headquarters and other organizations trying to be presented as the Revolutionary Headquarters. You can understand that just by looking at these conversations and records. They are not the same organization. They might consult each other about certain topics or might have participated together in various actions but the Revolutionary Headquarters is an illegal organization that is based abroad and founded on revolutionary violence. But legal structures like SDP and TÖPG are not from this organization. In fact, they disagree in many points and accuse each other on various issues".

Avcı continued, "There is not even one e-mail or telephone conversation registered between these organizations. It is out of the question that I assisted this organization and an illegal structure. I do not say this to accuse anybody but to show the difference between them".

After his speech of defence, Avcı requested his acquittal.

At 2.30 pm, the court gave an intermission to take Avcı out of the courtroom and bring the other defendants in.

"This trial is to settle old accounts of the police with Avcı"

After the break, the defence speeches of detained defendants Fatih Aydın, Cemal Bozkurt, Tuncay Yılmaz, Ulaş Erdoğan,  İbrahim Turgut, Özgür Dinçer, Osman Baha Akar, Semih Aydın, Hakan Soytemiz, Necdet Kılıç, Necdet Öztürk were taken.

Lawyer M. Rahmi Kadıoğlu, legal advisor of Osman Baha Akar, claimed, "This trial is the settling of old accounts of a part of the police with Avcı. The police needed an organization in order to prosecute Avcı. This organization was created. Now there is no evidence at all about most of the defendants here. In the police's settling of old accounts the court, we and most of the defendants play the pawn in the game. Yet, these pawns are human beings and have been imprisoned for 18 month".

Necdet Öztürk's lawyer Salim Şen reiterated that the allegations included in the indictment lacked evidence.

"There are very serious allegations but no proof. The prosecutor's office copy pasted the observations of the police into the indictment. The allegations are formed according to intend and purpose. I am not able to explain to my client why he has been detained for three years", Şen argued.

Bozkurt criticized prosecutor

Both the defendants and their lawyers emphasized that their actions were legal and that the indictment was lacking evidence. They all stressed that legal organizations like TÖPG and SDP were different from the Revolutionary Headquarters group. Most of the detained defendants who have been imprisoned for a long time requested their release.

Court President Nurettin Ak asked Public Prosecutor Salim Duran for his opinion.

Duran recommended the dismissal of the requests for release. Cemal Bozkurt, declared executive of the Revolutionary Headquarters organization, interfered by addressing the prosecutor: "Are you out of your mind? Do you not have any honour? You are victimizing that many people".

At the same time, Bozkurt requested the acquittal of Hanefi Avcı.

Due to his reaction towards the prosecutor, the court board decided to exempt Bozkurt from all hearing except the final session.

All requests for release were dismissed "because of a strong suspicion of guilt and due to catalogue crimes as stipulated in Article 100/3 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CMK) as pressed against the detained defendants".

It was decreed to wait for the execution of the arrest warrants about defendants Mahir Sayın and Akın Tanrıverdi.

Şenay Avcı's request to be exempt from the hearings was accepted.

The next hearing was set for 30 April 2011 at 1.00 pm. (IC/ÇT/VK)