Court Rules to Release Prof. Büşra Ersanlı After 8.5 Months

The Istanbul 15th Court for Serious Crimes ruled to release 16 suspects including eminent academic Prof. Büşra Ersanlı during the eighth hearing of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) trial.

The court consequently released arrested student Büşra Beste Önder, Özgür Gündem editor Kazım Şeker, Zekiye Ayık, Kemal Karagöz, Can Şahçelik, Erdoğan Baysan, Medeni Demirkapu, Cüneyt Özil, Birgül Arvaz, Suna Varsak, İbrahim Ethem Yıldız, Mehmet Sıddık Kumek, Uğur Taşdemir, Nizamettin Özmen, Mustafa İpek and Prof. Büşra Ersanlı.

Some 205 suspects are standing trial in the KCK Istanbul trial, 104 of them arrested pending trial. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1.

Prosecutor Ramazan Şaban rejected the defendants' request for their release, citing the presence of evidence indicating a strong probability of crime, the quality of the crime in question, the state of the evidence and the inadequacy of judicial control measures.

Chief Justice Ali Açık ruled for the 16 suspects including Prof. Ersanlı to be tried without arrest, however, on the grounds of the amount of time they already spent behind bars and the current state of evidence.

Moreover, the court also filed a complaint against two lawyers on the grounds they had disclosed the identities of the secret witness. (NV)