Acquittal of Radio Journalist Öziç Took 6 Years

The Adana 5^th Civil Court of First Instance acquitted radio journalist Sabri Ejder Öziç after 6 years. On 1 March 2003, before its refusal by the parliament, Öziç had commented against the govermnent move for deploying Turkish tropps in Northern Iraq: "If the National Assembly (TBMM) decides to send the military to be involved in acts of terror, then this Assembly is a terrorist".

After his acquittal on Thursday, Öziç told bianet: "Justice has finally happened. The political trend in 2003 was not any different from the current political trend. Also today we hear anti-militarism ideas in the background. It is most important that we condemn the consideration of ideas as crimes. We still hanker for a country without crime...".

The court tried Öziç under allegations of "Public humiliation of the National Assembly" because of his statement on 24 March 2003 about the bill sent from the cabinet to the National Assembly regarding the presence of the military and sending soldiers to Iraq.

Not defaming but criticizing

Initially, Öziç was tried under article 159 of the former version of the Turkish Criminal Court (TCK) for his statement uttered in the "Captain's log book" radio program on the Adana Radio World station. He was handed a 1 year prison sentence on 30 December 2003.

The Court of Appeal Public Prosecutor Turhan Başar though decided for the acquittal of Öziç on 23 February 2005. He evaluated Öziç's comments in the context of freedom of speech, regarding them as heavy criticism without considering them as elements of crime. He pointed out that the previous decision had been taken on the grounds of only half a sentence isolated from the context.

The Court of Appeal resumed the proceedings of the course when the local court requested to take into account article 301 of the new TCK which came into force on 1 June 2005. Article 301 is the amended version of former article 159 and is concerned with "Insulting the Turkish People, Republic of Turkey and Governmental Institutions and Bodies".

Court of Appeal was overruled by local court

In yesterday's hearing court president judge Ali İhsan Kıvrak decided for the acquittal of Öziç in accordance with prosecutor Mustafa Atalay's point of view regarding TCK article 301/3 saying that "declarations which aim to criticize are not evaluated as crime".

The court decision was reasoned as follows: "The defendant's complete radio speech evaluated in the indictment remained within the borders of criticism. Declarations aiming to criticize are not evaluated as a crime. The defendant did show evil intend regarding the crime of affronting and deriding the moral integrity of the TBMM. For these reasons elements of crime referring to Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) 223/2c did not occur and the defendant is acquitted...".

Journalist Dağıstanlı acquitted as well

Journalist Mustafa Alp Dağıstanlı was also on trial under article 301 because of his article entitled "Armenian genocide on 19 January 2007" published 4 days after the assassination of Agos newspaper editor Hrant Dink. Dağıstanlı's case was dropped after the Ministry of Justice did not permit its continuation. (EÖ/VK)