Istanbul 3rd High Criminal Court left the decision to next week for Constitutional Court review in KCK case where 205 defendants are facing trial for being a member of “terrorist” organization. The next hearing was set to December 3.
The review request was brought upon defense attorneys on the hearing of July 14, saying that the case indictment drafted under the recently removed special-duty courts in Turkey could no longer continue the tribunal.
The court demanded the defense attorneys to apply with all the documents that supported their claims of the case being unconstitutional. In the same hearing, the court also canceled the arrest warrant for 15 defendants and ruled the removal of international travel bans within judicial control measures.
Same request admitted in KCK Media case
The court resumed the case after a break of 4 months. It is possible that it can decide on the transfer of case to the Constitutional Court next week.
On November 5, the same court admitted a review of Constitutional Court against the allegations that the case with 46 Kurdish media worker defendants was unconstitutional.
In July 2012, 16 defendants including Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı, jailed student Büşra Beste Önder, Özgür Gündem newspaper editörü Kazim Şeker, Zekiye Ayık, Kemal Karagöz, Can Şahçelik, Erdoğan Baysan, Medeni Demirkapu, Cüneyt Özil, Birgül Arvaz, Suna Varsak, İbrahim Ethem Yıldız, Mehmet Sıddık Kumek, Uğur Taşdemir, Nizamettin Özmen, Mustafa İpek were released after a year long arrest term. (EÖ/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
