Diyarbakır 2nd High Criminal Court released 30 defendants yesterday while declining the release of two as “PKK still resumed its activities”.
Following the release of Hatip Dicle due to his long arrest term, defense attorneys made a similar request, saying that there was no judicial criterion between those who were released and not released in the case.
The list of released defendants are as follow:
Abbas Çelik, Abdullah Bozkoyun, Ahmet İlan, Ahmet Makas, Ali Şimşek, Atilla Koca, Burhan Karakoç, Çağlar Demirel, Erkan Pişkin, Ethem Şahin, Hacı Erdemir, Leyla Güven, Mahmut Okkan, Mehmet Akın, Mehmet Güzel, Mehmet Nesip Gültekin, Mehmet Salih Yıldız, Mehmet Tari, Mehmet Taş, Mükail Karakuş, Nejdet Atalay, Osman Ocaklık, Ramazan Morkoç, Resul Erkaplan, Sara Aktaş, Tayip Temel, Tuncay Korkmaz, Tuncay Ok, Zeynel Malt and Zülküf Karatekin.
The court listed the reasons for releases as follows: The arrest period of defendants, the completion of evidence collection, the predicted sentence term for defendants, the precaution nature of arrests, the existence of similar releases in other cases.
Court: PKK’s activities
The court, on the other hand, declined the release of Hasan Hüseyin Ebem and Abdullah Aflatun, ordering the continuation of their arrest terms.
The court listed the reasons of its ruling as follows:
“The continuation of PKK/KCK organization’s activities and the risk of evidence hiding, manipulation, removal by suspects or their threat on witnesses as well as the risk of their runaway given the sentence terms…”
The indictment
Drafted by Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office, the 7,578 pages long case indictment charged the 175 defendants including Batman province mayor Necdet Atalay and Kayapınar district mayor Zülküf Karatekin with “threatening the unity and integrity of the state”, “being a terrorist organization member” and “aiding a terrorist organization”. Defendants are facing sentences from 15 years of prison to life sentence. (AS/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
