Court of Cassation overturns acquittals in Gezi trial of çArşı fan group

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Court of Cassation's 16th Penal Chamber has reversed the verdicts of acquittal which were given for 35 people from the Beşiktaş sports club's fan group "çArşı" who participated in the Gezi resistance in 2013 and were put on trial on charge of "coup attempt."

As reported by Gökçer Tahincioğlu from T24, as the justification for the reversal of the acquittals, the Court of Cassation has indicated that no reports were received from the Forensic Medicine Institution, the state channel TRT or the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) as to whether the defendants joined the Gezi protests or not and that the Presidency was not informed about the lawsuit.

Indicating that the two cases are related, the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has also found it against the law that a ruling was handed down without considering to merge the case against çArşı with the trial which is heard by the İstanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court and where jailed businessperson and rights defender Osman Kavala is also standing trial.

In a ruling the day before, on April 27, the İstanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court ruled that the files of seven fugitive defendants of Gezi trial should be merged with the file of the other nine defendants.

It might be merged with Kavala case

The file of the "çArşı" case will be sent to the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court, the local court which heard the case.

If the local court abides by the reversal of the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, it will ask the İstanbul 30th Heavy Penal Court, which hears the main Gezi trial, whether this case will be merged with the main trial of 16 defendants, including Osman Kavala. If the court answers in the affirmative, the "çArşı case" and the main Gezi trial will be merged.

High court refers to wiretapped talks

In reversing the acquittals, the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has argued that "defendants Cem Yakışkan and Numan Bülent Ergenç, organizing together, tried to mobilize the group known as the Çarşı Fan Group and ensure their active participation in the protests by directing them to the Gezi Park area; getting in contact with the other defendants sometimes physically and sometimes via communication devices, they aimed to ensure active participation in the protest."

The high court ruling has also referred to the following wiretapped talks which were included in the indictment of the case: "I don't care about the park or anything. I don't care about the shopping mall, Gezi Park or trees. The revolution has begun, we will bring down the government. War everyday, resistance everyday. Kemalist or I don't know what... Let them burn, man, we are going. An attack will be launched against the Prime Ministry residence today. This might turn into a civil war. Let's attack the police strongly. We need to do something that will make a tremendous impact. If someone dies, social reflex will increase even more..."

Referring to this speech, the prosecutor's indictment alleged that "they aimed to overthrow the government in illegal ways."

The Court of Cassation's ruling has also referred to the last indictment against Kavala, underlining the allegations that the Occupy/Turkey movement and civil resistance method were effective in the incidents and and adding that the incident were also funded by the Open Society Foundation, where Osman Kavala was an executive.

About the çArşı trial

Indicted for "trying to occupy the Prime Minister's Office and attempting to stage a coup" during the Gezi resistance of 2013, the çArçı fan group of Beşiktaş sports club had their first hearing on December 16, 2014.

All of the 35 defendants, who had been put on trial with charges of "attempting to overthrow the government", "forming and leading a terrorist organization", "forming and leading a criminal organization", "resisting against police" and "opposing against the law on demonstration and march" were acquitted at their final hearing on December 29, 2015.

The 35 defendants were as follows: Koray Yalnız, Rüştü Aytan, Arda Mutludoğan, Sezgin Gülnar, Kaan Kabaş, Cem Yakışkan, Sarp Dağ, Barış Karaca, Atay Kesik, Mahmut İli, Numan Bülent Ergenç, Erdener Karataş, Volkan Eroğlu, Ant Erbirsin, Yusuf Demirci, Burak Bulut, Hüseyin Fidan, Ayhan Güner, Tuncer Gençer, Erdem Işık, Hakan Bora, Halil İbrahim Erol, Emre Işık, Engin Sarar, Serkan Sevim, Savaş Yeşiltepe, Akyan Uyanıktürk, Murat Eroğlu, Erol Özdil, İbrahim Aydın, Musa Fırat, Güray Sözmen, Mustafa Uysal, İbrahim Halilullah Turan, Hakan Tezel.

However, İstanbul's Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Mehmet Arif Ekinci appealed against the acquittals and argued that the defendants "aimed to overthrow the government in an illegal manner and created chaos within this frame." The case was taken to the Court of Cassation. (AS/SD)