Trial Merger - Defendants Beaten, Protestors Faced Tear Gas

Two people were released at the fourth hearing of the Revolutionary Headquarters Trial before the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court on 12 April. Detained defendants Cenk Büyükkahraman and Zafer Kaygın were released pending trial.

The Tuesday hearing was attended by detained defendants Cemal Bozkurt, Fatih Aydın, Özgür Dinçer, Necdet Öztürk, Ergin Öncü, Ulaş Erdoğan, Zafer Kaygın, Cenk Büyükkahraman and un-detained defendants Ozan Eryılmaz and Sevim Öztürk.

The organization which calls itself "Revolutionary Headquarters" assumed responsibility for an explosion at the Istanbul building of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on 1 December 2008 which left ten people injured. In the course of a police operation against the terror organization carried out on 27 April 2009, a police officer, a bystander and alleged terrorist Orhan Yılmazkaya, member of the Revolutionary Headquarters Organisation, were killed. Following the operation, 17 people were arrested on the grounds of supposed connections to the organization, among them journalists Aylin Duruoğlu and Mehmet Yeşiltepe.

The court dismissed the request for the release of detained defendant Öztürk, Yılmazkaya's flatmate at the time.

"Indictment prepared by the police"

Öztürk's lawyer Salim Şen drew attention to the fact that the investigation during the preparation of the indictment had been carried out by the police instead of the Public Chief Prosecution. He criticized that his client Öztürk was being detained for 24 months without any evidence apart from the mere fact that he knew Yılmazkaya and shared a flat with him.

Witnesses Cengiz Sırtıkara, Timur Aşık and Necla Bayram made their statements at court.

The indictment includes the clashes in Bostancı (Istanbul) in which Yılmazkaya and two other people were killed; the mortar attack on the Selimiye Barracks and the bomb attack on the Istanbul Provincial Office of the AKP.

In his speech of defence, detained defendant Bozkurt admitted the existence of the Revolutionary Headquarters and also his membership in the organization that he defended as an armed struggle.

Trials merged

One day later, on 13 April, the second trial regarding the Revolutionary Headquarters Organization commenced at the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court. This trial comprises 22 defendants.

The court decided to merge this file with the case tried before the Istanbul 9^th High Criminal Court. Procedures were adjourned to 11 August.

The lawyers took off their gowns to express their protest against the merger. The defendants were removed from the courtroom by force. A crowd of approximately 300 people in front of the Beşiktaş (Istanbul) courthouse protested the decision as well. The group was about to block the road in front of the building when the police intervened against the protestors with a gas bomb.

The Wednesday session was the first hearing of the trial heard before the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court. Rıdvan Turan, Chair of the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP), Social Freedom Platform (TÖP) Spokesman Oğuzhan Kayserilioğlu, SDP and TÖP executives, employees of the Bilim ve Gelecek ('Science and Future') and the RED magazines and former Chief of Police Hanefi Avcı are being prosecuted in the scope of this trial.

Present at the Wednesday hearing were detained defendants Rıdvan Turan, Nejdet Kılıç, Osman Baha Okar, Semih Aydın, Oğuzhan Kayserilioğlu, Hakan Soytemiz, Tuncay Yılmaz, Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu, Ecevit Piroğlu, Kemal Hamzaoğlu, İbrahim Turgut, Özgür Cafer Kalafat, Hanefi Avcı and Günay Kubilay. The session was also attended by un-detained defendants Önder Sönmez, Özgür Aytulum, Sultan Seçik Kubilay and Selda Başusta Çalık.

Un-detained defendants Şenay Avcı and Akın Tanrıverdi failed to appear. Besides, defendants Yaman Yılıdız and Salih Mahir Sayın did not attend the hearing despite arrest warrants released for both of them.

"Right to defence restricted"

When President Judge Vedat Yılmazabdurrahmanoğlu started to read out the decision for the merger, defence lawyer Bahattin Özdemir threw his rope onto the judge's bench and said that he was not going to listen to the decision.

Most of the defendants rose up to their feet and started shouting slogans like "Long live the revolution and socialism", "Prison cells don't intimidate us" and "Human dignity will defeat torture".

In an interview with bianet, defence lawyer Sinan Varlık criticized the merger of the two files as "unlawful".

"The judge decided to merge both files right after an intermission. There was not even an interrogation; our right to defence was restricted. As lawyers we took off our gowns to protest against this unlawful application", Varlık said.

He continued: "The gendarmerie officers were beating the defendants when they removed them from the courtroom. There must be a connection between the two files in order to decide for a merger of the trials. There is no connection between the files of these two trials. (...)"

The joint attorneys announced that the defendants were wounded and demanded a medical examination. The detained defendants were brought back to prison after the medical examination. (AS/BB/VK)