The Court Acquits The Agos Journalists
Today the Şişli 2nd Court of First Instance acquitted Sarkis Seropyan, the license holder for the Agos newspaper, an Armenian/Turkish weekly, and Aris Nalcı, the editor of the same newspaper, of the charge of “attempting to influence the judiciary.”
Kemal Aytaç, one of the defense lawyers, told the journalists in front of Şişli Justice Hall that “Actually, there should have not been a case like this. How do we know this? The verdict says so. I hope people will not have to go to the courts because of their ideas and be acquitted. In past people died because of this.”
The lawyers did not go in since they were protesting the court
The lawyers did not take part in today’s hearing since they were protesting Metin Aydın and Hakkı Yalçınkaya for being biased.
Only some observers, Haluk Ağabeyoğlu, the human rights and labor activists, among them, and the journalists were present at the final hearing, as the accused journalists did not show up, either. The Human Rights Watch Organization (HRW) representative Emma Sinclair-Webb observed the hearing, too.
The court was in a more relaxed mood, the new prosecutor asked for acquittal
In the verdict hearing, the court was not as tense as it was previously. Prosecutor Mücahit Ercan changed prosecutor İsa Dalgıç’s previous opinion demanding that the accused journalists be sentenced under article 288 of the Penal Code.
Prosecutor Ercan pointed out that the accused journalist critiqued in their editorial “Akıllı Tahta”, written on November 9, 2007, the law article under which they were sentenced, namely, article 301, by the way of implication, that they were not trying to influence the judiciary process, that considering the factors of the accusation, the verdict of the court itself could be critiqued within the legal framework as well, that the article, in its entirety, stayed within the limits of the freedom of expression and critique. At the end, he asked for the acquittal of the accused.
“The article was written for our Armenian citizens”
Judge Yalçınkaya, whose withdrawal from the trial process the defense lawyers had demanded, decided, “The article should be defined as an editorial piece written for our Armenian citizens rather than to influence the judiciary process, since it could not have been written to influence the judiciary, when viewed in its entirety, the accused should be acquitted separately.”
“They were tried, when the punishment was connected with the “psychology of the people”
They were sued for their article titled “Akıllı Tahta” (The Smart Board), published on the November 9, 2007 issue of Agos, in which they critiqued the decision that was reached regarding Hrant Dink’s Article 301 case.
The indictment had stated that the article itself was not criminal, but it had become criminal because of the psychology of the Turkish people.
The lawyers had claimed that the judges Metin Aydın and Hakkı Yalçınkaya could not be objective and brought a request of recusation against them. (EÖ/EZÖ/TB)