Sezgin Tanrıkulu, former President of the Bar Association of Diyarbakır (south-eastern Turkey) will be prosecuted because he criticized the release of Specialist Sergeant Gültekin Sütçü. Defendant Sütçü is being tried in the scope of the JİTEM trial and was released pending trial upon the Diyarbakır Military Court's decision for lack of jurisdiction. Tanrıkulu's case will be tried before the Siverek High Criminal Court in Şanlıurfa, a city in south-eastern Anatolia.
JİTEM, the Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit, is a clandestine and highly illegal gendarmerie intelligence unit set up in the late 1980s to counter ethnic separatism in the Southeast.
As reported by the Radikal newspaper, the case file is currently not being assumed by any court since the Diyarbakır 3rd High Criminal Court declared a lack of jurisdiction as well.
It is not clear yet where lawyer Tanrıkulu, Deputy Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), will be tried. He will be prosecuted under allegations of "attempting to influence a fair trial" according to Article 288 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK).
"Influencing the court that is going to be appointed"
In a statement made to the Dicle News Agency (DİHA) on 17 August 2007, Tanrıkulu criticized the decision of the military court. "It is not appropriate for a court that decides for a lack of jurisdiction to release a defendant of the trial. The court arrested and detained the defendant 'by mistake' and corrected that 'mistake' with the decision. This result conveys a message to similar incidents. The 'good guys' are not being touched in Turkey. JİTEM survived intact. They demonstrated this by protecting the defendant. In our opinion, this was confirmed by their following of the defendant's hearing; a defendant who was suspended from the military twelve years ago", he said.
Officials of the DİHA Diyarbakır Office told bianet that they have not received a notification yet concerning procedures related to their publications.
The Siverek High Criminal Court declared on 21 October 2010 that Tanrıkulu shall be prosecuted because he allegedly 'tried to influence the court that was going to be determined by the Court of Jurisdictional Disputes'.
The following evaluation was included in the court decision: "From the whole file and the indictment of the Public Chief Prosecution it is understood that (the defendant) tried to influence the court that is going to assume the file and try the case".
Article 288 of the TCK is particularly applied in regard to news and reports about the "Ergenekon" investigation and the related cases and furthermore in respect to criticism against trials concerned with the struggle for rights. (EÖ/VK)
