Lawyer Kırdök: "This Trial is a Complot"

The trial regarding the underground Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) was continued before the Beşiktaş (Istanbul) 12^th High Criminal Court on Thursday (13 October). 24 defendants, twelve of whom are detained, stand accused of "membership of the MLKP".

None of the detained defendants were released at the Thursday hearing. The court listened to the defence speeches of eleven detained defendants. Seyfi Polat was the only detained defendant who was not taken to the hearing because of disciplinary disruptions at the last hearing. The coming session was set for 13 February 2012.

The defendants are tried under allegations of "membership of the MLKP organization" in the context of Operation "Intend" ('Gaye') carried out in several Turkish provinces in September 2006. The indictment accuses the defendants of having held the 4^th MLKP Congress at a private home in Nazilli (western Turkey). A 40-page document is one of the main pieces of evidence.

Defendant Erdoğan commemorated journalist Zengin

In her brief speech of defence, detained defendant Füsun Erdoğan, Publications Director of Özgür Radio, expressed her sorrow and anger about the death of journalist and human rights defender Suzan Zengin. Zengin passed away the day before (12 October) after she had fallen ill during her two-year detention period in the Bakırköy (Istanbul) Detention Centre for Women and Juveniles.

"The conditions in prison are the reason for her death. I bow to her memory in respect. I am not going to say anything related to me personally".

'Trial is a complot'

Detained defendant Arif Çelebi emphasized that not a single hair, blood sample or finger print of his was found at the house where he allegedly spent three days for the congress.

"This house was under observation for three months. However, there is no picture of our alleged presence during those three days. Are these camera records really missing? If these records were given to court it would become clear that this case is a complot. It is not clear where the 40-page document came from but it was created by copy-pasting parts of a writing published on the internet site of the Partinin Sesi magazine ('Voice of the Party') six months ago. The initials A.Ç. at the end of the document are taken as evidence that the article was written by me".

Sultan Ulusoy said that she was interrogated as a medical student and the wife of a person called Kemal Yazan when she was in custody despite stressing the fact that this person was not her. She indicated that this incident has not been mentioned in the indictment at all.

"All their neighbours and the district headman said that Naci Güner and his wife and daughter who were living in the house in Nazilli were busy with their vineyard [at the time]. None of these witnesses identified any of the defendants. All these witness accounts nullify the indictment".

"Detained for six years - four different judges"

Defence lawyer Mihriban Kırkök recalled that the trial has been pending for six years and that the judges changed four times in the meanwhile. She put forward that the entire number of defendants was taken into custody at separate places and then brought to the house in Nazilli. Kırdök drew attention to the fact that the footage of the police cameras only show the defendants when they were leaving the house. This was shown as evidence despite the lack of records on the other three days, she indicated.

Kırdök assessed the trial as a "conspiracy". She said that the 40-page document shown as evidence was lacking a signature. It quotes the real names of the defendants whereas they would have used aliases if they had been part of an illegal organization, the lawyer stated. She requested an expert investigation for the document.

"The called the bed base a cache"

The house of labourer Hasan Ozan Polat in Kayseri was apparently under observation for three months. Nothing was found during the first search of his house. However, in the course of the second search, a weapon and various document emerged from under his bed it was claimed.

"Nothing was found when they searched the house with a fine-tooth comb for the first time right in front of my eyes. During the second search they gave the bed base a suspicious image by calling it a 'cache' and found a weapon in there. The weapon did not reveal any fingerprints of mine or of any of the defendants".

"One of Turkey's most tragic-comic trials"

Polat's lawyer Ercan Kanar questioned, "How shall we know that the weapon and documents allegedly found in the course of the second search that was carried out without a prosecutor have not been put there by the police?" The lawyer also drew attention to the long period of detention.

"Today's lengthy detention periods are criticized by everybody including the Justice Minister and Egemen Bağış [Minister for EU Affairs]. We are the worst country world-wide in this aspect. This situation hinders the subjective neutrality of prosecutors and hence prevents the prosecutors from seeing the defendants unbiased".

Related to the fact that none of the defendants was released pending trial, Kanar commented, "This is one of the most tragic-comic trials in Turkey. These proceedings are unlawful". Defendants İbrahim Çiçek, publications director of the Atılım newspaper, Ali Hıdır Polat, Ziya Ulusoy and Uğur Kayacı were released at the last hearing in May this year. (NV/VK)