Activist Eren Keskin Is Acquitted

3^rd Civil Court of First Instance of Kartal in İstanbul province dismissed Eren Keskin, the former head of the İstanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD) and lawyer, for the charge of “publicly denigrating the Turkish Military” during a panel at Köln in Germany on March 16, 2002. She was already acquitted for the same crime at the 5^th Civil Court of First Instance of Kartal in İstanbul province.

The court dismissed the second case since there is already a judgment for the same issue, given by another court.

Keskin was on trial for asserting during the panel at Köln that the subject of the military was a taboo in Turkey, that if a police officer commits crime against a woman then it is easier to prosecute than a member of the military does. These assertions were construed as violating article 301/2 of the Turkish Penal Code regarding (TCK) “denigration of the Turkish military.”

“The judiciary is a tool in the May 21 manifesto”

The activist Keskin and her lawyers Kemal Aytaç, Hüseyin Ataman, Saadet Enginol and Hasan Yılmaz were at the hearing of May 22.

Aytaç, one of the lawyers, stated to the judge Servet Kartal that Keskin was acquitted at the other trial and since she could not be tried twice for the same accusation, the second trial needed to be dismissed.

Speaking at her trial, Keskin said that the legislative, executive and judiciary branches are under complete control of the military in Turkey, that a warning was given to the government via the judiciary, and that she could not understand how a government which is treated in this way could not see the correct direction in her own case of the expression of thought. She demanded her acquittal.

Hearing the prosecutor’s argument that the case needed to be dismissed since Keskin could not be tried twice for the same accusation, the court dropped the case. (EÖ/GG/TB)