TRIAL OF ACADEMICS
Court to Await Constitutional Court Ruling on Academics for Peace
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Trial of academics, who have been charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime" prepared by the Academics for Peace, continued in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse yesterday (June 18).
Academics had their hearings at seven courts:
At the İstanbul 24th Heavy Penal Court; Research Assistant Mehmet Mutlu from Middle East Technical University (METU) and Assoc. Prof. Canan Kaygusuz and F.C. from 19 Mayıs University had their first hearings.
At the İstanbul 35th Heavy Penal Court; Dr. Ceren Lord from Kadir Has University had her fourth hearing; Prof. Dr. Selim Eyüboğlu from Bahçeşehir University had his third hearing; Prof. Dr. Zeynep Sayın from Artuklu University, Dr. Lecturer Seher Şen from İzmir Economy University, Dr. Lecturer Lülüfer Körükmez from Ege University and Dr. Lecturer Kıvılcım Turanlı from Anadolu University had their first hearings; Dr. Lecturer Ayşe Dayı from İstanbul 29 Mayıs University had her second hearing.
At the İstanbul 36th Heavy Penal Court; Research Assistants Kumru Çılgın and Barış Göğüş from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSGSÜ) and PhD student Dilek Çankaya from Ankara University had their fourth hearings.
At the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court; lecturer R.T. from Sabancı University and PhD student B.S. from Boğaziçi University had their third hearings.
At the İstanbul 22nd Heavy Penal Court; Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Parla from Sabancı University had her second hearing.
At the İstanbul 29th Heavy Penal Court; Research Assistant Taylan Banguoğlu from Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University had his first hearing.
At the İstanbul 28th Heavy Penal Court; Research Assistant Onur Baysal from the MSGSÜ had his fourth hearing.
Court to await Constitutional Court for judgement
Three academics, namely Kumru Çılgın, Barış Göğüş and Dilek Çankaya, were going to have their final hearings at the 36th Penal Court yesterday.
However, the court accepted the request of defendants' attorney Meriç Eyüboğlu and ruled that the Constitutional Court ruling on Academics for Peace shall be awaited till a verdict is given for the three academics. Accordingly, the court has adjourned the hearings to October 1, 2019.
CLICK - Constitutional Court Postpones Meeting on Academics
Deferred prison sentence for one academic
Having the final hearing at the İstanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court, academic R.T. from Sabancı University has been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK).
The announcement of the verdict has been suspended.*
About the Trials of AcademicsOn January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled "We will not be party to this crime" on behalf of the Academics for Peace initiative. With the participation of further academics, the number of academics who have signed the declaration has reached 2,212. With the indictment issued by the Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt, lawsuits were filed against the academics on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713. As of June 18, 2019, 631 academics had stood trial since December 5, 2017, all the 200 academics whose cases were concluded have been sentenced to prison. 142 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison; 8 academics to 1 year and 6 months in prison; 16 academics to 1 year, 10 months and 15 days in prison; 17 academics to 2 years and 3 months in prison; seven academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison; five academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison; and one academic to 3 years in prison. Non-deferred prison sentences for 35 people Of these 200 people, the verdicts of conviction of 36 academics in total have not been deferred; while the verdicts of 29 people have not been deferred as their prison terms are over 2 years (as per the Article 286 of the Law on Criminal Courts, the verdicts of 7 academics have not been deferred as they did not accept the deferment of the announcement of their verdicts. With her 15-month prison sentence upheld by the court of appeal, Academic for Peace Prof. Dr. Füsun Üstel has been arrested since May 8, 2019. The academics given non-deferred prison sentences are as follows: Ayşe Erzan, Özdemir Aktan, Nesrin Sungur Çakmak, Füsun Üstel, Büşra Ersanlı, Lütfiye Bozdağ, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Özgür Müftüoğlu, Yonca Demir, Gençay Gürsoy, M.A., Alper Akyüz, Ahmet Bekmen, Nihan Aksakallı, Hülya Kirmanoğlu, İsmet Akça, Haydar Durak, İlkay Özküralpli, Öznur Yaşar Diner, Remzi Orkun Güner, Esra Kaliber, Eda Aslı Şeran, Aysuda Kölemen, İlkay Yılmaz, Zeynep Tül Süalp, L.N., S.A., Gevher Gökçe, Çare Olgun Çalışkan, Nevin Zeynep Yelçe, Ali Kerem Saysel, Koray Çalışkan, S.I. Süreyya Topaloğlu, Ayşe Gül Altınay, Noemi Levy Aksu. You can reach all news on Trials of Academics here On March 10, 2016, the Academics for Peace made a statement for press and shared with the public what they had been going through since the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" was published. The academics Dr. Lecturer Esra Mungan, Dr. Lecturer Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy (March 15, 2016) and Dr. Lecturer Meral Camcı (March 31, 2016), who read out the statement for press, were arrested on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law. They were released on April 2016. Upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Justice granted a permission of trial as per the Article No. 301 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 301 on charges of "insulting the Turkish Nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey and the institutions and organs of the government." You can reach the statements of Academics for Peace in English here |
* As per the Article 231 of the Law on Criminal Courts (CMK), when a court rules that the announcement of a verdict shall be suspended or deferred, the verdict/sentence is removed in the event that the person does not commit an intentional crime in five years.
(TP/SD)