1 More Academic Given Suspended Prison Sentence of 1 Year, 3 Months

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Trial of academics, who have been charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime" prepared by the Academics for Peace, continued in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse yesterday (October 16).

At the İstanbul 25th Heavy Penal Court, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tansel Korkmaz and lecturer Yörük Kurtaran from İstanbul Bilgi University and Prof. Dr. Sibel Irzık from Sabancı University had their first hearings.

At the İstanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Koyuncu from Boğaziçi University had his second hearing.

At the İstanbul 28th Heavy Penal Court, research assistants D.Ü.K., Yonca Güneş Yücel and Onur Baysal from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University; lecturer Fevziye Deniz Tarba Ceylan from Sabancı University; research assistant Gülçin Karabağ from Yıldız Technical University and Dr. Lecturer Ayten Zara from İstanbul Bilgi University had their first hearings.

At the İstanbul 35th Heavy Penal Court, Prof. Dr. Selim Eyüboğlu from Bahçeşehir University had his second hearing.

At the İstanbul 36th Heavy Penal Court, Dr. Lecturer B.C.B. from Koç University had the third hearing.

At the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court, research assistants E.D.G. and Hülya Dinçer, who were discharged from Marmara University; Dr. Lecturer Lütfiye Bozdağ from Kemerburgaz University and Dr. Lecturer Gülşah Kurt from Kadir Has University had their second hearings.

Suspended prison sentence for 1 academic

At the hearing held at the 36th Heavy Penal Court, Dr. Lecturer B.C.B. has been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison. The prison sentence of the academic has been suspended.

At the 28th and 37th Heavy Penal Courts, the opinions as to the accusations for three academics were announced. Both court boards demanded that the academics be penalized as per the Article no. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law.

Academics E.D.G., Selim Eyüboğlu, D.Ü.K. Yörük Kurtaran and Ayten Zara did not attend the hearings.

Gülşah Kurt, Hülya Dinçer, Lütfiye Bozdağ and Fevziye Deniz Tarba Ceylan presented their statements of defense.

The attorneys of the academics requested that the case files of the academics be combined with the ones at the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court. The request of the academics has been rejected by the court boards.

What happened?

On January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled "We will not be party to this crime" on behalf of the Academics for Peace initiative. With the participation of further academics, the number of academics who have signed the declaration has reached 2,212.

With the indictment issued by the Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt, lawsuits were filed against the academics on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713.

As of October 16, 2018, 324 academics had stood trial since December 5, 2017. 27 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison and all of the sentences were suspended, except for those of Prof. Dr. Zübeyde Füsun Üstel from Galatasaray University and Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı from Marmara University.

The penalty of Prof. Dr. Üstel was not deferred on the grounds that "she did not demand deferment of the announcement of the verdict and that she did not make a statement of penitence." As for the penalty of Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı, it was not deferred on the ground that "no opinion as to her avoidance of committing offense has emerged considering her personality which does not express any remorse."

On March 10, 2016, the Academics for Peace made a statement for press and shared with the public what they had been going through since the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" was published. The academics Dr. Lecturer Esra Mungan, Dr. Lecturer Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy (March 15, 2016) and Dr. Lecturer Meral Camcı (March 31, 2016), who read out the above-mentioned statement for press, were arrested on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law. They were released on April 2016. Upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Justice granted a permission of trial as per the Article No. 301 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 301 on charges of "insulting the Turkish Nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey and the institutions and organs of the government."

The trials still continue. (TP/SD)