Court Declines to Release Utku Kalı

Samsun 3rd High Criminal Court opened the case of Utku Kalı, a former private on compulsory drafting who has been arrested on May 24 for “leaking top secret documents” regarding Reyhanlı blasts.

However, Utku Kalı has not been allowed to stand trial due to lack of “necessary permissions”. “Authorities could do this via fax but they didn’t do so,” advocate Ceren Kalı told bianet. 

“The court ordered the hearing of witness today but we raised objections. We told the penal court that Utku had the right to cross-examine the witnesses by asking questions during the hearing. The court then postponed the hearing of witnesses. 

“However, they did not make a decision on our demand to declare themselves as off-duty. Instead, the court attempted to fix a new hearing date.”

At the end of 30 minute long hearing, the court ruled the continuation of Kalı’s prison term for reasons associated with “high risk of runaway, strong existence of charge suspicions, upper limit of punishment, expert reports, existence of surveillance camera footage and insufficient judiciary control measures”. The court also listed Utku Kalı’s not yet submitted testimony as a reason for its ruling. 

The next hearing was set to November 11 at 2 pm local time with the attendance of defendant Kalı.

What happened?

Utku Kalı, a private on compulsory drafting serving in a prison headquarters under Gendarmerie in the northern province of Amasya, has been arrested on May 24 for “leaking top secret documents” regarding Reyhanlı blasts. He is currently jailed in a military prison in Sivas province.

Advocate Ceren Kalı cited some of the procedures that Utku Kalı went through as follows: 

“Transfer to attorney meetings in handcuffs, pressures, torture by stripped search, charges related to what he said during a nervous breakdown, order for testimony as he got up late in the morning. We see a purpose behind these treatments.” 

On August 15, the military court declared itself as off-duty, sending the case to Samsun 3rd High Criminal Court. 

Currently jailed in Sivas Military Prison, Kalı has been charged with crimes against state, “leaking top-secret documents” and “disclosing documents regarding the security and policies of the state”, facing up to 25 years of prison. (AS/BM)

* Click to see the Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to Kalı.

* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.