14 Life Sentences in Trial against Terror Organization THKP/C

14 defendants received life sentences in the case regarding Turkey's People's Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C) tried at the Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court.

Public Prosecutor Celal Kara reiterated his final plead presented on 24 June 2009. Defence lawyer Mihriban Kırdök did not accept the final submission of the prosecutor since it supposedly was "not based on evidence". The un-detained defendants of the case did not attend the final hearing on 21 June.

The lawyers of 18 out of a total of 25 defendants requested the acquittal of their clients and claimed to drop the case due to the statute of limitations.

The case came back to the Istanbul court upon the decision of the Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber. The court board decided for aggravated life sentences to be handed down to defendants Galip Aygül and Erkan Koç under charges of "attempting to entirely or partly change the Constitution of Turkey by force". The court furthermore took into consideration the defendants conduct and attitude at court and the gravity of their actions.

Considering the defendants' personalities, their social circumstances and the gravity of their crimes, life sentences for the same charges were handed down to Hacer Arıkan, Hüseyin Atıcı, Filiz Karayel, Özden Bilgin, Erol Çam, Dursun Bütüner, İsmail Yiğit, Yeşim Taciroğlu, Hasan Dinler, Hüseyin Tut, Süleyman Gülbahar and Suna Ökmen.

Defendant Kamil Öcalan received a prison sentence of six years and three months charged with membership of an illegal organization. Charges against defendants İbrahim Döğüş, Abdurrahman Kaykan, Perihan Sürücü, Alişan Yalçın, Rıza Demirel, Caferi Sadık and Harun Kartal were dropped by prescription.

Taylan Tanay, lawyer of Nursel Demirdöğücü and Mesude Pehlivan, withdrew from the trial because of health reasons. Ahmet Özdemir's lawyer Güray Dağ did not attend the hearing. Thus, the court decided to try defendants Demirdöğücü, Pehlivan and Özdemir in a separate case.

Mahkeme heyeti, sanık Nursel Demirdöğücü ve Mesude Pehlivan'ın avukatı Taylan Tanay'ın mahkemeye rahatsız olduğuna dair rapor sunması ve davadan çekilmesi, sanık Ahmet Özdemir'in avukatı Güray Dağ'ın duruşmaya gelmemesini gerekçe göstererek, bu sanıklarla ilgili davanın ayrılmasına karar verdi.

Offences

The defendants are held responsible for the killing of retired General Adnan Ersöz on 13 October 1991, British national Andrew Blake on 19 August 1991, retired Gen. Kemal Kayacan on 29 July 1992 and Prosecutor of the Bayrampaşa Prison Niyazi Fikret Aygün on 22 November 1992. They were furthermore involved in a gunfire attack on a service bus of the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) on 24 March 1992 and in a total of 69 crimes including killings, injuries, bombings, robberies, armed attacks and illegal demonstrations between 1989 and 1992.

The Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber investigated an appeal to the case and decided to send the file back to the Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court on the grounds of procedural errors since the signatures of some of the defendants were missing. (BT/EÖ)

The High Criminal Court then merged the case with the trial against another 17 defendants who were tried because of the same actions. (BT/EÖ)