Judge First Upheld 159-Year Prison Sentence, Then Examined the File

* Illustration: Murat Başol

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In the lawsuit where the 18 lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) have been sentenced to over 159 years in prison in total, the 2nd Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the court of appeal, apparently rejected the appeal of the lawyers against this verdict without examining their case files.

While the court of appeal upheld their verdict of conviction on October 8, 2019, a judge member to the court board expressed opinion one day later.

CLICK - Court of Appeals Upholds 159-Year Prison Term for Progressive Lawyers Association Members

In the lawsuit filed against ÇHD lawyers, the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court has ruled that the lawyers shall be sentenced to over 159 years in prison in total. Their appeal against the prison terms was rejected by the 2nd Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice on October 8, 2019. Accordingly, the prison sentences of six lawyers became definite.

The first report submitted by one of the judges as to the reason for his rejection on procedural grounds is dated October 9, 2019. In other words, the report was submitted one day after the verdict was given.

Signed on the same day with Minister Soylu's speech

As per the Law on Criminal Procedure, appeals against the verdicts of first-instance courts shall be raised within seven days after the verdicts are notified to defendants and their attorneys. When the appeal is not lodged in this period, applicants forfeit the right of examination of their appeal.

In making this preliminary examination, the legal authority only checks whether the petition has been submitted in due time or not. In the ÇHD case, this examination was made by one of the judges on October 9, 2019.

In a statement made to bianet from the ÇHD, "it supports their previously-expressed claim that the verdict was given without examination of the file.

"While it is apparent from the document that even the most simple examination was made on October 9, it is an object of curiosity when the file of over 50 folders and thousands of pages was examined and how the verdict was issued in an instant..."

The attorneys of the defendants previously argued that the court of appeal upheld the verdict of conviction without examining the file sufficiently and evaluating the claims of defendants' attorneys. In their appeal, the attornies presented these arguments to the court.

On the other side, the judge of the court of appeal expressed his opinion on October 9, when Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu gave a live interview on CNN Turk. Speaking there about the lawyers who were put on on trial, Minister Soylu said that "the most important pillar of the the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) was the lawyers and they made an end of the organization by arresting lawyers."

File being examined by the Court of Cassation

In the lawsuit filed against 20 lawyers from the ÇHD, the local court announced its ruling on March 20, 2019 and ruled that 18 lawyers shall be sentenced to 159 years, 2 months in prison in total. The case files of two lawyers have been separated from the others.

With the verdict upheld by the court of appeal on October 8, 2019, the prison terms of six lawyers sentenced to less than five years (Didem Baydar Ünsal, Yaprak Türkmen, Ayşegül Çağatay, Yağmur Ereren Evin, Ahmet Mandacı, Zehra Özdemir) became definite. However, with a recent amendment, they can now also appeal to the Court of Cassation.

Sentenced to more than five years in prison, 12 lawyers (Barkın Timtik, Özgür Yılmaz, Ebru Timtik, Behiç Aşcı, Şükriye Erden, Selçuk Kozağaçlı,Engin Gökoğlu, Aytaç Ünsal, Süleyman Gökten, Naciye Demir, Aycan Çiçek, Ezgi Çakır) appealed to the Court of Cassation.

Their file is now being examined by the supreme court. (AS/SD)