"REVOLUTIONARY HEADQUARTERS"
First Hearing of "Revolutionary Headquarters" Trial
In the first hearing of the "Revolutionary Headquarters" case ten defendants were released pending trial: journalist Aylin Duruoğlu, electrical engineerMehmet Yeşiltepe, fishery engineer Ceren Sütlaş, ship operatorSelim Öztürk,lawyer Nail Arıkan, news editor Abdülselam Sultan, cameraman Muhammet Çetin, cinema and TV productions supervisor Melek Seven, courier İbrahim Şimşek and advertisement editor Metin Akdemir. The defendants had been in detention for ten months.
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 hearing was held at the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court and was finished after midnight after a session of almost nine hours in total. Following the demands of the prosecutor, the court decided to keep Cemal Bozkurt, Özgür Dinçer, Ergin Öncü, Fatih Aydın, Melek Seven and Necdet Öztürk in detention. The case will be continued on 29 June.
Ten months detention for what?
The court had systematically rejected appeals against the detention of allegedly suspicious lawyers by reason of "arousing indignation in society".
Ten out of a total of 16 defendants were released after an in-depth discussion of the alleged evidence collected by Security forces. News agent Mustafa Aşula is the only un-detained defendant on trial.
The court decided to acquire the guard timetable of customs savings officer defendant Ergin Öncü from the Customs Directorate, who will be kept in detention.
The court declined the acquittal of Captain Necdet Öztürk, who let the flat where the "Revolutionary Headquarters Operation" was carried out. When Öztürk returned to Turkey after the operation he applied to the police himself in order to give his statement.
The indictment was prepared on 15 September 2009. It also includes journalist Mehmet Yesiltepe from the Revolutionary Movement magazine and journalist Aylin Duruoğlu, gazetevatan.com website official.
The indictment worked out by the Istanbul Public Chief Prosecution suggests a two-fold aggravated life sentence for defendants Fatih Aydın, Cemal Bozkurt, Özgür Dinçer and İbrahim Şimşek under charges of "disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country" and "deliberate murder". Further sentences varying from nine months to up to 300 years imprisonment are demanded under different charges.
Mehmet Yeşiltepe, Ergin Öncü, Abdülselam Sultan, Muhammet Çetin, Metin Akdemir, Mustafa Aşula, Nail Arıkan, Necdet Öztürk, Sevim Öztürk, Melek Seven, Ceren Sütlaş are facing prison sentences between 7.5 and 36 years each. Journalist Duruoğlu stands accused for "membership of an illegal organization" and faces imprisonment between 7.5 and 15 years.
Kanar: Illegal data should be excluded from indictment
Joint attorney Ercan Kanar requested to exclude data from the indictment which was obtained illegally, violated evidence and the privacy of the suspects and stigmatized ways of social life. The court rejected Kanar's request reasoning that 'the course of prosecution would reveal whether the evidence was in line with the law'.
Nine defendants gave their statements
Defendants İbrahim Şimşek, Mehmet Yeşiltepe, Ersin Öncü, Abdulselam Sultan, Muhammed Çetin denied the accusations.
Courier Şimşek stated that he took a parcel from a person he knew as 'Bookstore owner Ali' and whose real name he only learned during the hearing. "I thought it was a book and I delivered it to the AKP provincial building".
Revolutionary Movement magazine employee Yeşiltepe declined the accusations of being a terrorist put against him: "Orhan Yılmazkaya was a school friend of mine. I had a cup of tea with him two times just by chance. After I was released from prison in 2000 I lead my life as open and transparent as possible. I thought the negligence of the police would only last up to the prosecution, but the same negligence is carried into this case and into the indictment", Yeşiltepe stated.
Customs officer Öncü claimed, "We decided to renovate the cafeteria our family is running in January 2009. I left the electrical works to Fatih Aydın. I am not the person shown on the photographs presented as evidence".
News editor Sultan said that he knew defendants Mustafa Aşula and Özgür Dinçer. He stated, "Aşula was running a kiosk. Dinçer was working there as well. In January last year Dinçer asked me for help since he was not able to pay his rent. I lent him the money. He paid back part of it. When I was taken into custody by the Anti-Terror Branch I was asked about my connections to Dinçer".
Cameraman Çetin who was sharing the flat with Dinçer said, "I was staying at Dinçer's place to share the rent and to be able to continue my master course at the Communication Faculty of Marmara University".
Observers of the trial
The hearing was attended by national and international observers, among them Vatan newspaper journalists Reha Muhtar, Zafer Mutlu, Zülfü Livaneli, Güngör Mengi, Ruhat Mengi, Necati Doğru; Human Rights Watch (HRW) Turkey Representative Emma Sinclair-Webb; Amnesty International (AI) Coordinator for Turkey Anke Dietert; Turkey PEN President of the Committee for Writers in Detention Halil İbrahim Özcan; Ertuğrul Kürkçü from bianet, Turkey Union of Chambers of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) executive Hüseyin Yeşil, Füsun Çeliköz from the '78'ers' Initiative, Contemporary Lawers' Association (ÇHD) lawyer Kemal Aytaç and journalists and writers objecting the detention of Mehmet Yeşiltepe. (EÖ/EÜ/BB/VK)