The new Turkey
Ahmet Altan,
Columnist/Commentator, Editor

An appellate court vacated a prison sentence given to jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan on the charge of “publicly insulting Atatürk” over his article titled “CHP,” published in the shuttered Taraf daily on 4 November 2010.

The 18th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, reviewing the appeal against the sentence on 26 December 2019, annulled the 1 year and 6 month sentence given to Altan on 2 July 2019 by the Anadolu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The court ruled unanimously for Altan’s acquittal on the grounds that the elements of the alleged offense were not present in the case.

Appeal against 5-year and 11-month sentence rejected

Another appeal by Altan’s lawyers against a sentence he was given in 2018 was rejected. The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice rejected the appeal against the 5-year and 11-month sentence Altan was handed down on two different charges over his June 2016 article titled “Ezip Geçmek” (Beating all hollow).

The 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice reviewed the appeal on 17 December 2019. The court upheld the 2 year and 11 month sentence on the charge of “insulting the president” and the 3-year sentence on the charge of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist group” Altan was given by the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul. Altan’s lawyers will appeal the ruling with the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The same article is also held as evidence against Ahmet Altan in the trial publicly known as the “Altans case,” where he was sentenced in November 2019 to 10 years and 6 months in prison at the end of a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan’s trial on the charges of “attempting to influence a fair trial” and “violating the confidentiality of an investigation” resumed on 24 December 2019 at Istanbul’s Anadolu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The accusations in the case, filed upon a complaint by former Sakarya Chief of Police Faruk Ünsal, stem from an article Altan penned in 2009 for the now defunct Taraf daily, titled “Mafyanın dışında kim kaldı” (Who is left other than the mafia).

P24 monitored the hearing, where Altan was represented in the courtroom by his lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu. This was the sixth hearing in the case, which was relaunched after the Istanbul 32nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Altan on the charge of “insulting the president.” Altan’s lawyers have appealed the verdict with the Supreme Court of Appeals. 

Çalıkuşu told the court that the appeal against the 32nd Criminal Court of First Instance verdict was still pending and since Altan’s sentence was not final, there were no grounds for the proceedings to continue.

The judge announced that the court received a memo showing that the verdict against Altan in the previous case was still not finalized.

Issuing an interim decision at the end of the hearing, the court ruled for a stay of proceedings until the appeal process against the previous verdict against Altan is finalized.

Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak’s political commentary on TV and their articles cited among grounds for conviction

The criminal court that oversaw the trial of jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan, his brother, columnist and professor of economics Mehmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, former Zaman staffers Fevzi Yazıcı and Yakup Şimşek and former Police Academy lecturer Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül issued its reasoned judgment in writing on 4 December 2019, exactly one month after the retrial concluded.

At the end of the retrial, ordered by the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the 26th High Criminal Court had acquitted Mehmet Altan but convicted Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member,” handing down prison sentences of 10 years and 6 months and 8 years and 9 months, respectively, and ordering their release pending appeal. However, a week after the court’s release order, Ahmet Altan was rearrested at the request of the prosecutor who objected to his release.

The court had also convicted their co-defendants Yazıcı, Şimşek and Özşengül of “membership of a terrorist group,” sentencing all three to prison terms above 10 years and ordering the continuation of their detention.

At the end of the original trial, in February 2018, the trial court had sentenced all six to aggravated life imprisonment on the charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.” The indictment alleged that all defendants in the case had prior knowledge of the coup attempt in July 2016.

Commentary on TV and articles “cannot be deemed journalism”

In its 86-page reasoned judgment, the 26th High Criminal Court wrote that Ahmet Altan’s “proven acts that cannot be deemed journalistic activity were of a nature that served the objectives of the [FETÖ/PDY] organization.” The panel of judges held that Altan’s role as the founder and editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Taraf newspaper, his articles published online in the news portal haberdar.com, his articles titled “Ben buradayım benimle konuşun” (I Am Here, Speak with Me) “Mutlak korku” (Absolute fear), “Ezip geçmek” (Beating all hollow) and “Montezuma”; as well as his political commentary on Can Erzincan TV one day ahead of the attempted coup, all of which were held as evidence against him in the case file, were “of a nature that served the interests and objectives of FETÖ/PDY and constituted the crime of aiding the armed terrorist organization without being part of its hierarchical structure.”

The court wrote that the grounds for the sentence imposed on Ahmet Altan to be above the minimum sentence prescribed in law was “the intensity of malice aforethought.”

The judges also wrote that Nazlı Ilıcak’s actions could not be deemed journalistic activity. Being a long-time columnist in “media companies that supported [FETÖ/PDY]”; her 2012 book titled Her Taşın Altında “The Cemaat” mi Var? (Is ‘The Movement’ behind everything?); her political commentary during the program she co-hosted on Can Erzincan TV; as well as her Twitter posts were cited among the grounds for the sentence Ilıcak was given. The judgment said the panel granted a reduction in Ilıcak’s sentence “because she showed remorse during the course of the proceedings.”

No clear and convincing evidence against Mehmet Altan

About its ruling concerning Mehmet Altan, the court wrote that the case file “lacked fact-based grounds that could lead the panel to form the opinion that the defendant acted in line with the objectives of the armed terrorist organization FETÖ/PDY or intended to lay the groundworks for a probable military coup” and that therefore the panel ruled for his acquittal.

The court cited former Zaman staff members Fevzi Yazıcı and Yakup Şimşek’s employment with the shuttered newspaper, their savings accounts at Bank Asya, as well as their alleged “involvement” in the making of a 2015 TV commercial for Zaman, deemed to include references to an impending military coup, as the grounds for the convictions against Yazıcı and Şimşek on the charge of “membership of a terrorist group.”

As for Özşengül, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on the same charge, the court wrote that his “commentary during a program titled ‘Özgürlük Zamanı’ (Time for freedom), aired online on the day of the attempted coup on STV, where he appeared alongside other media components of the [FETÖ] organization” was considered as evidence by the court in reaching “the conclusion and the opinion that he acted as a member of FETÖ/PDY in line with the organization’s objectives and interests.”

The full text of the reasoned judgment (in Turkish) can be accessed here.

Novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan was sent back to prison on 13 November 2019, only one week after his release pending appeal. Altan was rearrested on 12 November after the prosecution objected to his release last week at the end of the retrial of the “coup” case against him and his five co-defendants.

Altan, who was released from prison late on 4 November after spending more than three years in detention on remand as part of the case, was taken to the Istanbul Police Department on Tuesday night. Altan remained in custody until Wednesday, when he was taken to the Istanbul Courthouse and appeared before the 27th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, which ordered his rearrest.

Last week, at the end of the second hearing of the retrial of Altans case, the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul had convicted Altan and four of his co-defendants in the case of terrorism-related charges. Ahmet Altan was handed down a prison sentence of 10 years and 6 months on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.” Taking into consideration the time he spent in pre-trial detention, the court had ruled to release Altan under an international travel ban.

Altan was rearrested at around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night at his Istanbul home, several hours after the 27th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, the next court of first instance tasked with reviewing the 26th High Criminal Court’s decisions, issued a warrant for Altan as it revoked the 26th High Criminal Court’s order for Altan’s release based on an objection by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The 27th High Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Altan on the grounds that “the judicial control measures imposed on him” remained “insufficient considering flight risk … the intensity of his actions, the duration of the prison sentence he was given, the time he spent in detention on remand … as well as his conduct following his release.”

The court rendered its ruling on Tuesday afternoon. News of the arrest warrant against Altan was made public by the pro-government Sabah daily and the state-run Anadolu news agency.

International condemnation 

News of Altan’s rearrest triggered an immediate wave of reaction from around the world, with David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, calling Altan’s rearrest “truly shocking.” “Ahmet Altan released by court order in Turkey. Erdoğan objects. Now Altan faces imminent re-arrest. How to describe other than as an abuse of law, power, process,” Kaye wrote on Twitter.

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic tweeted: “Like many others, I am appalled by the senseless cruelty that Turkish courts displayed once more by detaining Ahmet Altan again. He should immediately be released.”

Harlem Désir, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, issued a statement, in which he said he was “appalled by the decision to re-arrest Ahmet Altan one week after he was released.” “This is a terrible setback and can only deepen the media freedom crisis in the country. I call for the decision to be reversed,” Désir wrote on Twitter.

In his statement posted online on OSCE’s website, Désir wrote: “Arresting Altan again is a terrible setback and a reason for serious concern, especially if we take into account the length of the judicial process against him and the fact that he has already spent three years in pre-trial detention.” The Representative added that the re-arrest of Altan can only deepen the media freedom crisis and increase the feeling of legal insecurity within the media community. “I repeat my call to reverse this decision and ensure that journalists are protected and free to do their job,” Désir stressed.

Harlem Désir’s statement can be accessed here.

London-based freedom of expression organization ARTICLE 19 tweeted: “Ahmet Altan is being rearrested now after only one week of freedom. This is a shame on Turkey and a dark day for justice. This judicial harassment must not continue. #FreeAhmetAltan.”

Thomas Hughes, Executive Director at ARTICLE 19 said: “Ahmet Altan was unjustly imprisoned for over three years while defending himself against trumped up coup charges. Re-arresting him just a week after his release amounts to psychological torture. Refusing to tell his lawyer whether or not he will be arrested adds insult to injury. The whole situation is horribly reminiscent of his release and re-arrest in September 2016. Just as then, Altan has criticised the Turkish authorities following his release and they appear to be determined to punish him for this. The terrorism charges against Altan have always been politically motivated and the entire case lacks even a shred of credible evidence. The Turkish authorities must immediately cease this cruel judicial harassment of Altan.”

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) wrote on Twitter: “Ahmet Altan is being re-arrested right now, after being released only last week. BHRC is very concerned about the personal impact of this on Mr. Altan, & his loved ones, and also more widely about the grave abuse of power implications for Turkey’s democracy and the rule of law.”

Schona Jolly QC, Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales, who have been monitoring the Altans trial, said: “BHRC has expressed serious concerns throughout this trial both about the fairness of this trial and about the impact of such prosecution, based on hopeless grounds and without sufficient or credible evidence, on the right to free expression in Turkey. The welcome release of Ahmet Altan does not alter the fact that we consider there was not sufficient or proper basis for his conviction, or to hold him in pre-trial detention for over three years.

Re-arresting him now, following his public criticism of the Turkish authorities upon his release, has all the appearance of a further abuse of power, by way of politically-motivated and/or judicial harassment.  In the wider context of the mass arrest and prosecution of journalists, civil society and political opponents – cases which BHRC has been observing – this step now appears to be part of a broader attempt to stifle and silence critical opposition and free expression in Turkey’s democracy, by using and abusing the legal process.”

English PEN tweeted: “Last week we joined colleagues around the world in welcoming the release of writer Ahmet Altan after more than three years in detention in Turkey. Tonight we come together once again to condemn his re-arrest.”

Italian journalist and writer Roberto Saviano, who conducted an interview with Altan last week, tweeted: “The Turkish writer Ahmet Altan could be re-arrested after a week of freedom because a new arrest warrant is out for him. This practice has a specific name: torture. Europe has to offer political asylum to Ahmet Altan immediately.”

The trial

Ahmet Altan was first arrested on 10 September 2016 along with his brother, Mehmet Altan, over alleged links with the Gülen network. The indictment claimed that all seven defendants in the original trial had prior knowledge of the attempted coup of 15 July 2016, which the government says was masterminded by the Fethullah Gülen network.

In February 2018, at the end of the Altans trial, the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul sentenced six defendants in the case, including Ahmet Altan and his brother, Mehmet Altan, to aggravated life imprisonment on the charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.” 

The retrial of the case, which concluded on 4 November 2019, followed on the heels of a Supreme Court of Appeals judgment in July 2019 that overturned the aggravated life imprisonment sentences and ruled that Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak should instead be charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member,” Mehmet Altan should be acquitted, and their three co-defendants should be charged with “membership in a terrorist group.”

Shortly after the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court ruled for their release in the retrial held in the wake of a Court of Cassation verdict of reversal, journalist and writer Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak were released from Silivri Prison and Bakırköy Women's Prison last night (November 5).

While Altan was welcomed by his several friends and relatives, Ilıcak was greeted in front of the prison by his relatives, including his son Mehmet Ali Ilıcak and his elder brother Ömer Çavuşoğlu.

Altan: You cannot be happy

As reported by Elif Akgül from T24 news website, Ahmet Altan stated the following in brief after being released from prison:

"You cannot go out that happily. There are fellows that you have left behind in prison, you cannot be happy. It is better to stay and see people off in these conditions. I saw people off, you become happy for them. These fellows are innocent and they stay inside."

'I don't let my years pass for nothing'

Altan also said, "I felt a bit sad when I first heard my verdict of release. The other fellows have not been released, I feel so sorry for them. There are thousands of innocent men inside. It is, of course, a bit sad."

Telling the reporters that he missed looking at the sky most, Altan also said, "My years have not gone to waste. I did not let my years pass for nothing. I wrote books. I do not lose my years that much."

Ilıcak: Enact the law on execution of senctences

Released from Bakırköy Women's Prison in İstanbul, journalist and writer Nazlı Ilıcak said, "May Allah give strength to those who are left behind bars. Please, do not let them be forgotten. Please, let this law on execution of sentences be enacted as soon as possible."

CLICK - Verdict of Release for Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak, Acquittal for Mehmet Altan

They were arrested in 2016

Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan were taken into custody on September 1, 2016 as part of the investigation launched into July 15 coup attempt.

While Mehmet Altan was arrested on September 22, 2016, Ahmet Altan was released. However, one day later, on September 23, Ahmet Altan was also arrested on charges of "being members of an armed terrorist organization and attempting to overthrow the government of the Republic of Turkey or to prevent it from performing its duty".

Nazlı Ilıcak was also arrested together with 16 journalists as part of an operation against Gülen Community on July 30, 2016.

While Mehmet Altan was released on June 27, 2018, Nazlı Ilıcak and Ahmet Altan have been behind bars since they were arrested. (EKN/SD)

Novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan and journalist Nazlı Ilıcak were both convicted of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member” on 4 November 2019, at the end of the retrial of the “coup” case against them. The court ruled to release both, taking into consideration the time they spent in pre-trial detention.

Ruling in line with the prosecutor’s final opinion, the court convicted three of their co-defendants — Fevzi Yazıcı, Yakup Şimşek and Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül — of “membership in a terrorist group” and ruled for the continuation of their detention.

Mehmet Altan was acquitted and the judicial control measures imposed on him were lifted.

Altan and Ilıcak were released from the Silivri Prison and Bakırköy Women’s Prison respectively as per the court decision later in the day.

This was the second hearing in the retrial of Altans case, overseen by the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, which had sentenced six defendants in the case to aggravated life imprisonment on the charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” in February 2018, at the end of the original trial.

The retrial followed on the heels of a Supreme Court of Appeals judgment in July that overturned the aggravated life imprisonment sentences and ruled that Ahmet Altan and Ilıcak should instead be charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member,” Mehmet Altan should be acquitted, and their three co-defendants should be charged with “membership in a terrorist group.” The indictment claimed that all seven defendants in the case had prior knowledge of the attempted coup of 15 July 2016, which the government says was masterminded by the Fethullah Gülen network.

P24 monitored Monday’s hearing, where Nazlı Ilıcak and Mehmet Altan as well as defense lawyers were present in the courtroom. Ahmet Altan, Fevzi Yazıcı, Yakup Şimşek and Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül addressed the court via the judicial video conferencing system SEGBİS from the Silivri Prison, where they have been in detention on remand for over three years as part of this case. In addition to P24, representatives from the Swedish Consulate General in Istanbul, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRCEW) and rights groups Article 19, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International were among those monitoring the hearing.

At the beginning of the hearing, the prosecutor reiterated his final opinion which he submitted to the court last week. In his final opinion, the prosecutor asked the court to acquit journalist and Professor of Economics Mehmet Altan but convict his brother, Ahmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, former Zaman staffers Fevzi Yazıcı and Yakup Şimşek, and former Police Academy lecturer and political commentator Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül of terrorism-related charges. The prosecutor requested the continuation of the detention of all five jailed defendants and sought sentences above the minimum prison term prescribed by the law for all five.

Lawyer representing Parliament files motion seeking life imprisonment

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, the lawyer representing the Parliament, which is a co-plaintiff in the case, filed a motion seeking the reversal of the court’s decision to comply with the Supreme Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the “coup” convictions. The motion requested that the court insist on its verdict in the original trial and sentence all six defendants, including Mehmet Altan, to aggravated life imprisonment.

Ilıcak: The principle of equal treatment is being violated

The court heard Ilıcak’s defense statement first. Asserting that the prosecutor’s final opinion made the same allegations as the ones in the original trial, Ilıcak explained that she wrote columns for Bugün newspaper, not “Özgür Bugün,” which never existed.

She said the accusation “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member” was specifically formulated to be leveled against journalists. Ilıcak reminded the court that the Supreme Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the convictions in their case was “not a verdict that convicted me of knowingly aiding a terrorist group, but a ruling that told the court to review the case from this vantage point.”

Adding that some of the allegations against her were similar to those against her co-defendant Mehmet Altan, Ilıcak said: “The prosecutor is seeking Mehmet Altan’s acquittal but is asking the court to punish me over the same TV program. This amounts to a violation of the principle of equal treatment.”

The presiding judge then interrupted Ilıcak, asking her to deliver her statement more rapidly.

Continuing with her statement afterwards, Ilıcak defended her social media posts that are held as evidence against her. She said that when taken into consideration as a whole, her Twitter posts proved that she was against the coup. The presiding judge then interrupted Ilıcak for a second time, asking her to wrap up her statement.

As she concluded her statement, Ilıcak asserted that she “did not knowingly and willingly aid a terrorist organization” and asked to be acquitted and released.

Özşengül: Allegations amount to slander

Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül addressed the court next. Asserting in his statement that there was not substantial evidence against the defendants in the case file, Özşengül said the articles he wrote did not include any remarks that supported, praised or defended the Gülen network. He said his columns were an exercising of the right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the Constitution.

Asserting that the court convicted him at the end of the original trial based on the indictment against him, as if he never made a defense statement, Özşengül said: “A conviction requires clear and convincing proof of criminal activity. The allegations against me in the case file that do not even constitute reasonable doubt amount to slander.

“The prosecutor claims in his final opinion that we ‘operated under the disguise of journalism.’ I spent 34 years with the Police Academy. I never claimed to be a journalist. I am a lecturer,” he added.

Rejecting the accusations against him, Özşengül requested to be acquitted.

Yazıcı and Şimşek: Lawful employment held as evidence against us

In the afternoon session, the court first heard Zaman’s former design chief Fevzi Yazıcı’s defense statement. Yazıcı said he only saw his lawyer once after the prosecutor submitted his final opinion and asked the court to grant him additional time for his defense statement. The presiding judge rejected Yazıcı’s request, saying that none of the defendants was granted additional time. Asserting that the “membership in a terrorist group” charge in the Supreme Court of Appeals ruling was based on his lawful employment at Zaman, Yazıcı said this was not a crime and asked to be acquitted.

Şimşek, the former brand manager of Zaman, also told the court at the beginning of his statement that he did not know before the hearing that this was going to be his final defense statement. “I was going to ask for additional time to prepare my final statement in response to the prosecutor’s opinion, which I could only see on Friday,” Şimşek said. Asserting that his employment with Zaman was being held as evidence against him, Şimşek rejected the accusations and asked to be acquitted and released.

Ahmet Altan: The prosecutor is incriminating himself in his final opinion

Ahmet Altan addressed the court next. Saying that the prosecutor’s final opinion was a three-page long document full of contradictions and lies, Altan said the prosecutor was actually incriminating himself with this document.

“The prosecutor claims in his final opinion that I ‘said the coup of 15 July would take place.’ This is a lie. I never made such a remark and there is no evidence supporting this allegation,” Altan said.

He continued: “But the sentence that follows in the final opinion constitutes the basis of the prosecutor’s confession to his crime. The prosecutor says: ‘It is not possible to have prior knowledge of the coup attempt without acting in unison with the terrorist group.’ So according to the prosecutor, in order to have prior knowledge of the coup, this person must be acting in unison with the putschists. But then the prosecutor mentions ‘articles written during a period when the likelihood of a coup was deemed relatively high.’ So he is saying that there was a strong likelihood of a coup ahead of 15 July 2016. And the prosecutor was aware of this likelihood. But since the prosecutor argued that it was ‘not possible to have prior knowledge of the coup attempt without acting in unison with terrorists,’ then I would like to ask the prosecutor which putschists did he act in unison to find out about the likelihood of a coup.

“I stand behind everything that I have said and written up until now. If your goal is to keep me in prison, you can do that for as long as you want. I am not afraid of prison. I’d rather spend the rest of my life in prison than fear such a government. As long as this government keeps me in prison on these justifications, the ones who keep me in prison also become smaller. And no one has the power to change this equation.

“The law has such magnificent power and it is because it strengthens and enlarges all who hold on to it. I do not move away from the law and honesty, and I suggest everyone else to do the same,” Ahmet Altan concluded his statement.

The full text of Ahmet Altan’s statement (in Turkish) can be accessed here.

 

Mehmet Altan: Prosecutor’s final opinion reiterates nullified allegations

Mehmet Altan, who was released from pre-trial detention in June 2018 based on the Constitutional Court’s judgment concerning his individual application, was the last defendant to address the court.

Pointing out that the prosecutor’s final opinion reiterated the allegations in the initial indictment, Altan said those allegations were nullified as a result of judgments by the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights and the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

“Because the indictment repeated in the prosecutor’s final opinion is not a lawful indictment, my constitutional rights were found to be violated and the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled for my acquittal,” Altan said.

“Throughout this trial, I have witnessed the existence of a will that seeks to disregard the constitutional order, trying to achieve this goal within the state. The primary target of this mob has always been the Constitution. Very dangerously they attempted to disregard the Constitution.

“I am still suffering from my unlawful detention as part of this case even though I was paid compensation [which was ordered by the Constitutional Court]. This has to be remedied according to both the Constitution and Supreme Court of Appeals case-law,” Altan said as he concluded his statement, requesting to be acquitted as per the Supreme Court ruling.

The full text of Mehmet Altan’s statement (in Turkish) can be accessed here. 

After Mehmet Altan completed his statement, the court went on to hear defense lawyers.

Ahmet Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu and Nazlı Ilıcak’s lawyer Kemal Ertuğ Derin told the court that their clients should be acquitted based on the amendments introduced in the Law on the Fight against Terrorism (TMK) with last month’s Judicial Reform Package. All defense lawyers requested the court to acquit their clients.

Verdict 

Following the completion of defense lawyers’ closing arguments, the panel said they would take a 20-minute recess for deliberation. The bailiff then announced that the recess was “open-ended” and that the panel would not be announcing their verdict until after 7 p.m.

The panel returned to the courtroom at 7:45 p.m. Announcing their verdict, the court acquitted Mehmet Altan and lifted all judicial control measures imposed on him. The court sentenced Ahmet Altan to 10 years and 6 months in prison and Ilıcak to 8 years and 9 months on the charge of “aiding a terrorist group without being its member” and ruled to release both, taking into account the time they spent in pretrial detention. The court imposed an international travel ban on both Altan and Ilıcak.

Their co-defendants Fevzi Yazıcı and Yakup Şimşek were each sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison and Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül was given a prison sentence of 12 years on the charge of “membership in a terrorist group.” The court ruled to keep all three behind bars.

Ahmet Altan and his five co-defendants now face trial on lesser, terrorism-related charges, instead of “attempting coup”

ÖZGÜN ÖZÇER, İstanbul

The retrial of the “coup” case against six defendants including jailed journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan, his brother, professor of economics and journalist Mehmet Altan and jailed journalist Nazlı Ilıcak commenced 8 October 2019 in Istanbul. This was the first hearing held after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the aggravated life sentences against the six defendants in the case.

Journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak and three other co-defendants –former marketing director of the shuttered newspaper Zaman, Yakup Şimşek, former Zaman art director Fevzi Yazıcı and the Police Academy lecturer and commentator Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül — have been in prison for over three years. Mehmet Altan, a professor of economics and journalist, was released by an appellate court in June 2018 on the basis of a Constitutional Court judgment that said his pre-trial detention amounted to violation of his rights.

All six defendants were given aggravated life sentences for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” by the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court in February 2018. The appellate court upheld the sentences but the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned them, saying Ahmet Altan and Ilıcak should have been charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its members” while Yazıcı, Şimşek and Özşengül should have been charged with “membership of a terrorist organization.” The charges carry up to 15 years in jail. For Mehmet Altan, the Supreme Court said he should be acquitted.

Following the Supreme Court of Appeals decision, the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court that handed the aggravated life sentences had to establish first whether to comply with the decision. At Tuesday’s hearing, the court panel heard statements from the prosecutor and the defendants and defense lawyers in response to the Supreme Court decision. The prosecutor requested the court to comply with the decision but also to keep all the imprisoned defendants behind bars pending trial.

At the end of the hearing, the court decided to abide by the Supreme Court of Appeals’ ruling and to keep the five imprisoned defendants in pre-trial detention. The court also ruled to lift the international travel ban on Mehmet Altan. The trial adjourned until 4 November.

Observers from P24, Article 19, Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) were present to monitor the trial. Many were unable to enter as the session was again held at a small courtroom.

Defendant Şimşek expelled from courtroom

Ilıcak was brought to the courtroom from the Bakırköy Women’s Prison where she remains jailed, while Şimşek and Özşengül were brought from the Silivri Prison outside Istanbul. Ahmet Altan and Yazıcı attended the trial via the judicial videoconference system from the Silivri Prison. Mehmet Altan, who was released in June 2018, was also present at the hearing.

The first defendant to be heard at the hearing was Ilıcak, who also asked the court to comply with the ruling handed down by the Supreme Court of Appeals. In a brief statement, Ilıcak suggested the court to also take into consideration the government’s plan of enforcing a judicial reform package. “I have been in detention for more than three years. I’m 75 years old. I demand my release on account of the new charge I face,” Ilıcak said.

Speaking after Ilıcak, Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül said his health issues required being able to regularly visit hospital and asked for his release.

Third defendant to take the floor, Yakup Şimşek, rejected the accusations levelled against him. The court did not pay any attention to their defense statements in the first trial and kept him in detention based on unfounded allegations for 37 months, Şimşek said.

Presiding judge Kemal Selçuk Yalçın warned Şimşek over his criticism of the court and asked him to keep his statements limited to the Supreme Court of Appeals’ ruling. “I leave it to God,” Şimşek replied, after which Yalçın expelled him from the courtroom.

Ahmet Altan: Witnessing the judiciary’s suicide

Following Şimşek’s expulsion, it was jailed journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan’s turn to present his statement to the court. Altan, who chose to make his statements from Silivri Prison via the judicial videoconference system, also strongly criticized the trial court’s attitude during the initial trial. “Since the very beginning of this trial you have been trying to do the impossible, you have been trying to prosecute thought,” Altan said. “It is not possible to achieve this. Because the boundlessness of thought cannot fit into the confines of the judiciary.”

Altan said: “Law draws the limits of the judiciary. When the judiciary goes outside of these limits in order to punish ideas, it clashes with law. We find ourselves in front of a lawless judiciary.

A judiciary in conflict with law — its very purpose of existence — commits suicide by cutting its own life-blood. For the past three years I have been facing a judiciary that is drenched in blood, committing suicide.”

Altan said the court used “absurd justifications that have nothing to do with law” such as “subliminal messages,” “immaterial force,” “abstract threat”, “penning articles at a time when the coup was probable.”

“These, are not judicial justifications, this is the suicide letter of a judiciary,” he said.

The presiding judge Yalçın warned Altan after he said “If this court had sincerely listened to our defense statements, it would not have been dragged into making such a grave mistake like failing to comply with the judgment of the Constitutional Court. It would not have clashed with its purpose of existence.” The judge told him to keep his comments limited to the Supreme Court of Appeals’ ruling. “We have been waiting with patience for three years,” Altan answered. “I’m expecting you to show some patience.”

When Yalçın warned him a second time, Altan closed his statements telling the court “My advice to you today is for you to comply with the law, to not go outside the boundaries of law and to not try to prosecute thought. It’s up to you to follow this advice or not.”

The full text of Ahmet Altan’s statement at the court can be viewed here.

Mehmet Altan: Would you like to stand trial as we did?

Following Ahmet Altan, Fevzi Yazıcı was asked to give his statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling. Sitting next to Altan at the Silivri Prison, Yazıcı made a brief statement through the judiciary’s videoconference system. Yazıcı rejected the accusations brought against him, demanding his release and acquittal.

The only defendant who was released in the case, Mehmet Altan, was last to be heard. Altan said after the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court of Appeals had also ruled that accusations against him were unfounded, adding that the Supreme Court of Appeals had also made it clear that judgments of the Constitutional Court and the European Court were binding.

Altan said the trial court did not follow the key Supreme Court of Appeals case-law while sentencing him and his co-defendants to aggravated life sentences for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”

“How can the panel of a first instance court, particularly of a high criminal court, can misinterpret the case-law of the Supreme Court of Appeals? Did they make such a mistake because their knowledge about the law is inadequate or they are tasked to bear enmity against innocent people whom they don’t know personally?”

“Both options are terrifying, but all said and done they did treat me as an enemy,” Altan continued. “Now I’m asking you: Whilst my innocence was clear from the outset, was this enmity worth it? What did you gain?”

After the chief judge warned him to keep his statement shorter, Mehmet Altan referred to his previous defense statements and asked the court “Would you like to stand trial as we did? Ask your conscience then decide.”

Judge to lawyer: Don’t read out our names

After defendants, the court gave the floor to their lawyers. The presiding judge reacted angrily when Büşra Şimşek, lawyer and also the daughter of imprisoned defendant Yakup Şimşek referred to a mistake in a minutes of hearing proceedings as she was arguing that the panel of judges should withdraw from the case. “You’re accusing the court of lying,” Yalçın told lawyer Şimşek threating with filing a complaint against her to the Bar’s Association and expelling her from the courtroom.

Ahmet Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu rejected the Supreme Court of Appeals’ decision to put the novelist on trial for “aiding a terrorist organization.” “Did Ahmet Altan know that the organization in question was a terrorist organization? Was he aware that they were preparing to stage a coup?” she asked. As Çalıkuşu was reminding to court that it refused to implement a Constitutional Court ruling regarding Mehmet Altan and mentioned the three judges composing the panel and the prosecutor by their name, head judge Yalçın interrupted again her statement. Yalçın told her she should not read their names out loud during the proceedings.

The court announced its interim decision following a break of about an hour. It ruled to comply with the Supreme Court of Appeals’ decision “that complies with the procedures and the law,” but rejected the demands for release of the five defendants who have been in detention for three years and a month. The court lifted Mehmet Altan’s travel ban but did not acquit him straight away.

The court panel also rejected requests to recuse itself from the case and the demands to expand the investigation, setting 4 November 2019 as the date of the next hearing. Because the next court hearing is less than a month away, the regular monthly review of detention for the imprisoned defendants will not be held before that hearing.

The court also decided to order a medical report assessing health risks for continued detention of Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül.

The 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul has once again ruled for the continuation of the detention of jailed journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak, who have both been behind bars for over three years as part of the “coup” case against them and their four co-defendants, who also include Ahmet Altan’s brother, Professor of Economics and columnist Mehmet Altan. The trial court, which will be overseeing the retrial of Altans’ case in October after the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the convictions, stated the Constitutional Court’s rulings concerning Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak as the grounds for its rejection of requests for their release pending trial. The Constitutional Court’s Plenary had rejected the individual applications filed on behalf of Altan and Ilıcak on 3 May 2019.

In the meantime, Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu filed a complaint with the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) on 9 September 2019, requesting the council to take legal action against the judges of the trial court. Çalıkuşu requested that the council remove Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court’s presiding judge Kemal Selçuk Yalman, judges Recep Kurt and Mehmet Akif Ayaz and prosecutor Eray Akkavak, “who have all abused their positions and have lost their impartiality.” Çalıkuşu requested a new panel to be assigned with the retrial. Çalıkuşu said that she will be continuing to file complaints to the HSK every day until legal action is taken against the judges in question.

Yusuf Karataş, a columnist for Evrensel daily, appeared before a Diyarbakır court on 11 September 2019 for the sixth hearing of his trial on the charge of “establishing and leading a terrorist group.”

Karataş faces up to 22.5 years in prison in the trial, one of many similar criminal cases where the accusations stem from audio recordings of speeches delivered by participants during Democratic Society Congress (DTK) rallies. Karataş was arrested and jailed pending trial in July 2017 as part of an investigation into DTK. He was released pending trial in September 2017.

P24 monitored the hearing at the 9th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır, where Karataş and his lawyer İsmail Koç were in attendance. Minutes of previous hearings were read out during the hearing because the court panel had changed in between hearings. The presiding judge then informed those in attendance that the court has still not received a report from the Council of Forensic Medicine concerning the forensic examination of audio tapes.

The prosecutor requested the continuation of the judicial control measures imposed on Karataş and asked the court to wait for the forensic report.

Addressing the court after the prosecutor, Karataş requested the court to lift his international travel ban because it prevented him from performing his journalistic activities.

Karataş’s lawyer also addressed the court, asserting that the audio tapes in question were obtained in an unlawful manner and requesting that the court inquire of the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office about the exact date when his client’s name was listed for the first time among suspects in the investigation file. Koç requested the tapes to be transcribed again and also asked the court to lift his client’s international travel ban.

In its interim ruling, the court ruled for the continuation of Karataş’s travel ban and to inquire of the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office about the exact date when Karataş was listed among suspects in the investigation file. The court set 25 December as the date for the next hearing. The court also ruled that it would consider the request for the audio tapes to be transcribed again after the completion of the forensic examination report. 

Imprisoned journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan’s trial on the charges of “attempting to influence a fair trial” and “violating the confidentiality of an investigation” resumed on 5 September 2019 at Istanbul’s Anadolu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.

The accusations in the case, filed upon a complaint by former Sakarya Chief of Police Faruk Ünsal, stem from an article Altan penned in 2009 for the now defunct Taraf daily, titled “Mafyanın dışında kim kaldı” (Who is left other than the mafia).

P24 monitored the hearing, which began at 10:28 a.m., about 40 minutes later than scheduled. Altan, who has been imprisoned in the Silivri Prison since September 2016, was to address the court via the video-conferencing system SEGBİS for the hearing, however, the connection could not be established due to a technical problem. Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu was in attendance in the courtroom.

The judge had ruled at the end of the previous hearing in June to ask the Ankara 1st Civil Court of First Instance for the case file of a previous lawsuit filed by Ünsal over the same article by Altan, which the Ankara court had rejected. The judge informed those in attendance that the court has still not received the Ankara court’s response.

Altan’s lawyer Çalıkuşu then asked the court to wait for the Ankara court’s response. The judge ruled to write a second memo to the Ankara 1st Civil Court of First Instance requesting “very urgently” that they send the case file and adjourned the trial until 12 November 2019.

Lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu: Trial court proves once again that it’s no longer impartial 

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL

Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu, the lawyer representing Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan, has filed two new petitions with the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul and the next court of first instance this week, objecting to last week’s interim rulings by the 26th High Criminal Court, which ordered the continuation of Ahmet Altan’s detention on remand and ruled for Mehmet Altan to be “forcibly brought” to the retrial in October.

After the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the aggravated life imprisonment sentences against six defendants including Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak in the “coup” case, the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul ruled for the five imprisoned defendants to remain in detention on remand and for Mehmet Altan, who was released last summer by a decision of the appellate court, based on the Constitutional Court’s ruling, to be “forcibly brought” to the first hearing in the retrial, which is set for 8 October 2019.

Çalıkuşu said the ruling was “in violation of the right to a fair trial” and that this way, the court “has proven once again that it has lost its impartiality.”

In her objection filed with the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, Çalıkuşu recalled the Supreme Court of Appeals’ recent ruling that called for Mehmet Altan’s acquittal.

Çalıkuşu asserted in her petition that in 2018, the Constitutional Court of Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights have both rendered judgments in favor of Altan, ruling that his pre-trial detention was unlawful.

Çalıkuşu also added that according to Article 146 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK), only in cases where “there are sufficient grounds to issue an arrest warrant or an apprehension order” against the accused can the judge order them to be forcibly brought before the court. Çalıkuşu emphasized that in the case of Mehmet Altan there were no reasons to justify this decision.

Additionally referring to articles 145 and 146 of CMK, Çalıkuşu pointed out that even in the event there is such a request, Mehmet Altan cannot be brought to court by force before being summoned by a letter first.

According to CMK 145 and 146, a suspect or accused may forcibly be brought before court if there are sufficient grounds to issue an arrest warrant or an apprehension order, or if they fail to appear before the court after being summoned by a summons letter.

Çalıkuşu also filed a complaint against the three-judge court panel with the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), saying the council should take immediate legal action against the trial court’s arbitrary rulings and its judges. The HSK should also transfer the case file to another court, she said.

The Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul has to deliberate on Çalıkuşu’s objection in three days.

Çalıkuşu filed her objection to the trial court’s interim decision ordering the continuation of Ahmet Altan’s detention on remand with the next court of first instance, the 27th High Criminal Court of Istanbul. 

Noting that Altan has been in pre-trial detention for 35 months despite the maximum jail time for the alleged offense being 30 months, Çalıkuşu requested the court to release Ahmet Altan. 

Çalıkuşu wrote: “In view of the scope of the case file, the current stage the trial is in, and the 35 months that have already been spent in pre-trial detention, a judge who is guided by conscience cannot rule for the continuation of the defendant’s pre-trial detention. A court who can make such a decision while knowing that the maximum jail time for the offense is 30 months clearly exhibits bias in determining the appropriate sentence. And by preferring to punish before conviction, this court has gone against the Penal Code. The only truth that comes out of this is that the goal is to keep Ahmet Altan locked up behind bars.”

The criminal court that sentenced Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and three of their co-defendants to aggravated life imprisonment in the “coup” case in 2018 will begin the retrial of the case on 8 October.

The 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, which issued its decision for retrial on 18 July, rejected the requests for Ahmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and their three co-defendants to be released pending trial. All five have been in pre-trial detention for almost three years as part of the case.

The trial court rejected the requests for release on the grounds of “the nature and specifics of the leveled accusation; the evidence at hand; the specifics of judgments rendered by relevant authorities during the appeal process as well as by the Constitutional Court during the individual application phase and the facts established in the said judgments; and substantial evidence that constitute strong suspicion of guilt.” The panel also cited “flight risk” and “the insufficiency of judicial control measures that would be imposed on the defendants” among the grounds for rejecting the requests for release pending trial.

The retrial comes on the heels of a judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeals earlier this month, which overturned the trial court’s 2018 verdict and ordered a retrial. The 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals had ruled that Mehmet Altan, who was released from pre-trial detention in June 2018 by a decision of the appellate court based on a Constitutional Court judgment, should be acquitted, while Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak should face the lesser charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.” The 16th Criminal Chamber had also ruled that Altans’ co-defendants Fevzi Yazıcı, Yakup Şimşek and Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül should be charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

In February 2018, the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul had convicted novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan, his brother, columnist and professor of economics Mehmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, Zaman daily’s former chief page designer Fevzi Yazıcı, the newspaper’s marketing director Yakup Şimşek and former Police Academy lecturer and commentator Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” under Article 309 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

The indictment claimed that the defendants “had prior knowledge of the coup attempt of July 2016,” which the government claims to have been carried out by the members of the religious movement led by Fethullah Gülen.

On 27 June 2018, the appellate court that took up the case ruled that Mehmet Altan should be released on the basis of the Constitutional Court judgment.

However, in October 2018, the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, the appellate court overseeing the case, rejected the appeals and ruled for the continuation of detention of all imprisoned defendants in the case.

Earlier this year, on 3 May, the Constitutional Court rejected the individual applications filed on behalf of Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak. In its reasoned judgments issued on 26 June, the Constitutional Court said “the assessments made by the investigation authorities and the decisions rendered by the courts that ruled for [the journalists’] detention could not be deemed as ‘arbitrary and baseless’.” Source

The trial of the former executives of the shuttered daily Taraf and its reporter Mehmet Baransu resumed on 11 July 2019 at the 13th High Criminal Court of Istanbul.

The accusations in the case stem from the alleged publication of a document called “Egemen War Plan.”

P24 monitored the two-day hearing, where Baransu, the only imprisoned defendant in the case, who is in pre-trial detention in the Silivri Prison, was in attendance to continue with his defense statement. Former Taraf executives Ahmet Altan, Yasemin Çongar and Yıldıray Oğur, who are exempt from personal appearance in court, did not attend. They were represented by their lawyers.

Following Baransu’s statement, Altan and Çongar’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu addressed the court, saying there was a mistaken opinion about the subject matter of the trial and that Baransu had been going on about the Balyoz documents in his defense statement although this is of no relation to the present case. “This trial is not about Taraf’s coverage of the Balyoz [sledgehammer] coup plan. The CD’s that included information about the Balyoz coup are unrelated to this case. This trial is about documents that were not among those which the trial at the 4th High Criminal Court was based on,” Çalıkuşu said.

“The document called ‘Egemen war plan’ was uncovered in 2008 among the Turkish Armed Forces’ [TSK] archives of classified documents. The allegation is that the said document was stolen from the archives and leaked to the Greek press. But the TSK has been asserting that this very document had been destroyed the same year. And Taraf’s coverage at the time did not include these documents,” she added.

Following the completion of statements by lawyers, the prosecutor requested the continuation of Baransu’s detention on remand.

Issuing an interim ruling at the end of the two-day hearing, the court ordered the continuation of Baransu’s detention. The court also ruled to separate the file against Baransu concerning the charge of “membership in a terrorist group” to be sent to a criminal court in Mersin, which is also overseeing another criminal case against Baransu. Also ruling to wait for the execution of the arrest warrant against Tuncay Opçin, the fifth defendant in the case, the court adjourned the trial until 27, 28, 29 August.

The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a decision of a criminal court that sentenced journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak to aggravated life imprisonment on charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order,” according to a news report published by the state news agency Anadolu late on Friday.
 
The 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that Mehmet Altan, who was released in June 2018 by a decision of the appellate court on account of a Constitutional Court judgment in January, should be acquitted, citing lack of sufficient and credible evidence.
 
As for Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak, the court said they should face the lesser charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.”
 
The decision, as cited by Anadolu, said it could not be proven that the defendants had participated in the crime of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order as perpetrators. It said that the case file also failed to offer evidence that Altan and Ilıcak were members of what it called the FETÖ/PDY terrorist organization, having organic links with the hierarchical structure of the group and involved in activities that represent a certain degree of continuity, diversity and frequency sufficient to be regarded as qualifying for membership.
 
But the supreme court judges rejected requests for release of Altan, Ilıcak and three other co-defendants in the case, who have been in prison for about three years.
 
As for the three co-defendants, the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that Fevzi Yazıcı, the art director of the shuttered Zaman newspaper, Yakup Şimşek, the marketing director of the same daily, and commentator and former Police Academy lecturer Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül should be charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” which carries up to 15 years in jail, instead of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”
 
Yazıcı, Şimşek and Özşengül have all been imprisoned as part of the case for over three years now.
 
The case is now expected to be sent back to the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court, which originally handed the verdicts for retrial.
 
In January, the Constitutional Court ruled that Mehmet Altan’s detention was in violation of his right to personal liberty and security and freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The appellate court that took up the case ruled on June 27, 2018 that Altan should be released on the basis of the Constitutional Court ruling, even though the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court that had sentenced Altan and his co-defendants to aggravated life imprisonment and the next court of first instance had earlier refused to release him.
 
The six defendants including Altan brothers and Ilıcak were given aggravated life sentences in February 2018 for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”

On 2 October 2018, the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, the appellate court overseeing the trial, rejected the appeals against the aggravated life sentences and ruled for the continuation of detention of all imprisoned defendants in the case.
 
On 3 May 2019, the Constitutional Court rejected the individual applications filed on behalf of Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak. In its reasoned judgement released on 26 June 2019, the Constitutional Court said “the assessments made by the investigation authorities and the decisions rendered by the courts that ruled for [the journalists’] detention could not be deemed as ‘arbitrary and baseless’.” 

Jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan’s trial over an article he wrote in 2010 in the shuttered daily Taraf resumed on 2 July 2019 at the Anadolu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.

Altan was accused of “publicly insulting the memory of Atatürk” for his article titled “CHP,” which was a critical piece about the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Altan, who has been in pre-trial detention in the Silivri Prison since September 2016, addressed the court via the judicial video-conferencing system SEGBİS during the hearing, monitored by P24. Altan’s lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu was in attendance at the court.

“In a developed country, no writer would stand trial in a case similar to this one,” Altan told the court in his defense statement. He added: “In politics, there are no sacred figures. If you make a figure part of day-to-day politics, then you are acknowledging that this figure is not sacred and is debatable. In case a figure is thought to be sacred and therefore non-debatable, then that figure should not be part of politics. You cannot make a person part of the political discourse and then tell others ‘this person is non-debatable.’ […] The legal system is based on facts, it relies on factual evidence. If one tries to keep a figure within the political field and at the same time keep it free from criticism, this amounts to political ploy.”

Addressing the court following Altan, lawyer Çalıkuşu said the accusation in the case file was based on the prosecutor’s interpretation. “The alleged offense can only be present in the event of intent. There is no intent to ‘insult’ in Ahmet Altan’s article,” Çalıkuşu said. She requested Altan’s acquittal.

Announcing its verdict at the end of the hearing, the court convicted Atan of “publicly insulting the memory of Atatürk” and gave him a 1-year prison sentence. The sentence was increased by half on the grounds that it had been “committed through the press.” The court suspended the sentence.

The trial court had convicted columnists Ahmet Turan Alkan, Ali Bulaç, Şahin Alpay, Mümtazer Türköne, Mustafa Ünal and editor İbrahim Karayeğen of “membership in a terrorist group” in July 2018

An appellate court has upheld the verdict rendered last year in the “Zaman trial,” where 11 former columnists and editors of the shuttered newspaper were accused of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” and “membership in a terrorist group.”

The 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice upheld the trial court’s verdict on 25 June 2019. The prosecutor has appealed against the appellate court’s ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The trial court had convicted six of the defendants in the case on 6 July 2018, while acquitting five journalists of all charges.

Columnists Ahmet Turan Alkan, Ali Bulaç, Şahin Alpay, Mümtazer Türköne, Zaman’s Ankara representative Mustafa Ünal and the newspaper’s night shift editor İbrahim Karayeğen were convicted of “membership in a terrorist group” and each given prison terms between 8 years and 9 months and 10.5 years. Columnists Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu, Nuriye Ural, İhsan Dağı, editor Mehmet Özdemir and lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz were acquitted of all charges.

Türköne and Ünal were each sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and ordered to remain behind bars pending the appeal process.

The trial, which got under way in April 2017, was based on an indictment into 30 people initially. The investigation targeted journalists, columnists and other press members from media outlets linked with the religious network led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen. The Turkish government lists the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization and accuses its members of orchestrating the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016.

Source: https://expressioninterrupted.com/
appellate-court-upholds-verdict-in-zaman-trial/

The Constitutional Court’s Plenary has issued the judgments concerning its 3 May 2019 decisions, in which it rejected the individual applications filed on behalf of jailed journalists Ahmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and former Cumhuriyet staff members including Murat Sabuncu and Ahmet Şık.

All nine applications, filed in 2016 and 2017, asserted that the applicants’ arrests violated their rights to liberty and security and freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

The top court’s judgments were published on 26 June 2019 on the court’s official website. The judgments concerning the rejected applications said, in a nutshell, that “the assessments made by the investigation authorities and the decisions rendered by the courts that ruled for [the journalists’] arrests could not be deemed as ‘arbitrary and baseless’.”

In Ahmet Altan’s application, the President of the Constitutional Court Zühtü Arslan, Vice President Engin Yıldırım and three other justices disagreed with the majority opinion. All five judges were of the opinion that Altan’s arrest violated his rights to liberty and security and freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

In his four-page dissenting opinion, Constitutional Court President Zühtü Arslan wrote that the investigation authorities have “failed to demonstrate relevant and sufficient grounds proving that the contents of Altan’s columns and his commentary, held as evidence against him, constituted strong indication of guilt.”

“Based on several sentences excerpted from two columns by Altan that were included in his investigation file, the investigation authorities have alleged that Altan had prior knowledge of the 15 July 2016 coup attempt and laid the groundwork for a coup, however, the same authorities have failed to provide the factual grounds to prove this claim,” Arslan wrote.

Regarding the allegation in the investigation file that “Taraf newspaper, under Altan’s administration as editor-in-chief, published content in line with the objectives of the FETÖ/PDY terrorist organization,” Arslan wrote that the investigation authorities have “also failed to factually demonstrate that the newspaper content that constituted the grounds for Altan’s arrest was published in line with the objectives of the terrorist organization and based on instructions from the said terrorist organization.” 

Vice-President Engin Yıldırım also wrote in his dissenting opinion that among the grounds for Altan’s arrest, there was no evidence factually demonstrating a strong suspicion other than certain expressions and his harsh criticism in his columns and his commentary. Yıldırım wrote: “For certain expressions the applicant has used in some of his columns and his commentary to be deemed ‘strong indication of guilt’ does not amount to anything beyond a speculative assessment.”

Yıldırım wrote that Altan’s columns and commentary that constitute the basis for the accusations “neither laid the groundwork nor called for a coup, but were rather aimed as a warning about the potential chaos which the policies adopted and the discourse employed by certain political figures whom Altan had been harshly criticising could stir and at informing the public about their possible consequences. Yıldırım wrote: “Speaking of a probable coup and supporting a coup are not the same thing. Otherwise, anyone who speaks about the danger of a coup or other internal disturbances could later be accused of laying the groundwork for the coup in the event the coup they had warned of does indeed take place at some point.”

At the end of two days of deliberations on 2 and 3 May, the Constitutional Court’s Plenary had rejected the applications of Ahmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak, who is Altan’s co-defendant in the “coup” case, Akın Atalay, Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Şık and six former Cumhuriyet Foundation executives, including Önder Çelik and Musa Kart. The judgments issued on 26 June revealed that the Plenary had ruled that Ahmet Şık’s application was “inadmissible.”

The top court had found rights violations in the files of journalists Kadri Gürsel, Murat Aksoy and Ali Bulaç. 

A Turkish court fined journalist Ahmet Altan, who has been jailed over coup charges for more than two years, 7000 liras ($ 1276 ) for insulting the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, independent news site T24 reported on Tuesday.

The fine stems from a column Altan wrote in 2016 pertaining to the 2008 Ergenekon investigation, T24 said.

Starting in 2008, prosecutors and judicial officials linked to the Gülen movement, accused by Ankara of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt, brought a string of prosecutions, known as the Ergenekon trials, against what they said was a conspiracy among a rogue, strongly secular-nationalist group within the media, state, and security services threatening to bring down Erdoğan’s Islamist government.

"I don’t have a personal relationship with the president. I have no reason to insult him. He is a politician. What I did was criticise the politics he conducted. And this is my constitutional right. Such cases are being opened to prevent political criticism,’’ T24 quoted Altan as saying in his defence statement.

In Oct. 2018, a regional court of appeals upheld an aggravated life sentence for Altan, along with other journalists, accused of having links to plotters of 2016’s coup attempt targeting Erdoğan.

Insulting the president carries a sentence between one and four years, according to the Turkish Penal Code.  

Between 2010 and 2017, 12,893 cases of insulting the president were filed. Of these, 12,305 were filed under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who assumed office in 2014. Source

The lawyer representing jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan has filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Appeals, requesting for Altan’s acquittal and release. Altan has been imprisoned since September 2016.

In her petition dated 16 January, Altan’s lawyer Figen Çalıkuşu objected to the accusation in the judicial opinion by the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which was submitted on 8 January to the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Court. The Chamber will be overseeing the appeals against the verdict for Altan, his brother, Mehmet Altan, journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, and their three co-defendants, who were convicted in February 2018 of the “coup” charge and sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. After the trial court’s verdict was upheld by an appellate court in October, defense lawyers brought the verdict before the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The judicial opinion by the General Prosecutor requested the reversal of the appellate court’s verdict and asserted that the Altan brothers and Ilıcak should have been charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member,” instead of the original charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”

Çalıkuşu asserted in her petition that the new accusation sought for Altan in the judicial opinion was unacceptable and that her client should be acquitted and released.

Office of the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals says Altan brothers and Ilıcak should have been charged with “aiding a terrorist group without being its member”

The Office of the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals has requested the reversal of the appellate court’s verdict in the case against jailed novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan, his brother, professor of economics and longtime newspaper columnist Mehmet Altan, veteran journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, and their three co-defendants.

In February 2018, the 26th High Criminal Court of Istanbul had sentenced the Altans, Ilıcak and three of their co-defendants to aggravated life imprisonment for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” as per Article 309 of the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK). The indictment claimed that the defendants in the case “had prior knowledge of the coup attempt of July 2016,” which the government claims to have been carried out by the religious movement led by Fethullah Gülen.

In October, the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, the appellate court overseeing the case, upheld the trial court’s verdict. The defense lawyers then appealed the appellate court’s decision before the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The Office of the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals said in their judicial opinion concerning the appeal that the Altan brothers and Ilıcak should have been charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member,” instead of the much serious charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”

The judicial opinion asserted that “force and violence” were the essential elements of the charge of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” as described in TCK 309, adding that the concepts of “immaterial force” or “threat” were unacceptable in proving this charge in respect of the principle of legality.

Adding that the alleged acts committed by the defendants did not amount to “physical force and violence,” the judicial opinion went on to say that the verdict was based on “a broad assumption” and lacked specifics as to “when the alleged offense began to be committed; which offense the defendants participated in; or in what way they used force and violence.” 

The judicial opinion said the court’s presumption that the defendants had committed the alleged offense “jointly and directly” was “erroneous and lacking legal and sufficient grounds.”

The Office of the General Prosecutor submitted their judicial opinion to the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals on 8 January.

The judicial opinion (in Turkish) by the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals can be seen here.

In the event the Chamber rules in line with the Office of the General Prosecutor’s judicial opinion, the case file against the Altan brothers and Ilıcak will return to the trial court for retrial, this time on the charge of “aiding a terrorist group.”

The Office of the General Prosecutor also said in their judicial opinion that the Altans’ three co-defendants — Fevzi Yazıcı, the chief page designer of the shuttered daily Zaman, Yakup Şimşek, the newspaper’s marketing director, and former Police Academy lecturer Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül — should have been charged with “membership in a terrorist group.”

The judicial opinion seeks that the Supreme Court of Appeals uphold the verdict concerning Tibet Murat Sanlıman, the seventh defendant in the case, who was acquitted of the charges by the trial court.

In the event the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the appellate court verdict, the Office of the General Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals can still object to the verdict, in which case the file will be reviewed by the Assembly of Criminal Law Chambers.

Of the six defendants, Mehmet Altan was released in June by a decision of the appellate court when the court first took up the case. The other defendants remain imprisoned, for well over two years now. Source

The lawyer representing imprisoned novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan has launched a campaign in which she will be filing a petition with the Constitutional Court every day starting on 4 January 2019 until the top court rules on Altan’s individual application, pending before its Plenary since November 2016.
 
Altan has been in the Silivri Prison since 10 September 2016, when he was arrested and later jailed pending trial on charges stemming from alleged links to the Fethullah Gülen network, which the government accuses of orchestrating the coup attempt of July 2016.

Altan and his co-defendants -- including his brother, professor of economics Mehmet Altan, and veteran journalist Nazlı Ilıcak -- were accused of sending “subliminal messages” during a television appearance prior to the coup attempt. The trial court convicted all six defendants of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order” in February 2018 and imposed on them aggravated life imprisonment sentences.
 
In her petition, Altan’s lawyer Figen Çalıkuşu underscores that her client has been deprived of his liberty for 846 days.
 
She also stresses in the petition that Altan’s individual application, referred to the Constitutional Court’s Plenary on 4 July 2018, had been pending before the court for the past six months.
 
In a press statement she issued about the campaign, Çalıkuşu said:
 
“Today we are launching a campaign in which we will be filing on a daily basis a petition with the Constitutional Court on behalf of my client Ahmet Altan, who has been deprived of his liberty for 846 days.
 
This marks yet another first in our country’s judicial history.
 
Last year, courts of first instance refused to implement the Constitutional Court’s January 2018 ruling in favor of my client Mehmet Altan, which was final and binding, for six months.
 
This time, it is the Constitutional Court itself that refuses to take up the individual application lodged on behalf of Altan on 8 November 2016. Although the Constitutional Court gave our application priority status and referred the file to its Plenary on 4 July 2018 for the judgment to be rendered, the applications has been pending before the Plenary for the past six months. This marks yet another first in relation with the Altans case that will go down in the history of law and the Constitutional Court.
 
I would like to reiterate the fact that my jailed client Ahmet Altan’s file that has been given priority status has been pending before the court since 4 July 2018, awaiting the Plenary to merely render its judgment.
 
* Today is 4 January 2019.
 
* Today marks the 184th day the application has been pending before the Plenary of the Constitutional Court.
 
For a file concerning a jailed applicant that has reached the judgment phase to wait before the Plenary for months is an unprecedented situation that in itself constitutes yet another rights violation.
 
In order to put an end to this unprecedented situation, it has become imperative at this point that we file a petition every day with the Constitutional Court and call the top court’s attention to the urgency of the matter.
 
When considered together with the fact that the applicant is in jail, for his file -- which was initially granted priority status and which, in the 22 months that elapsed since, has reached the judgment phase, and which was already reviewed by the Constitutional Court -- to await judgment by the Plenary for more than six months is in conflict with the practice of individual application.
 
Throughout its history, humankind has willingly submitted to nothing but justice and the law.
 
In my strife to put an end to rights violations, starting today, I will be filing a new petition every day to reiterate and recall this approach.
 
I request the Honorable Court in the name of law to take up the application that has been pending before the Plenary without further delay to urgently put an end to the ongoing plight of the applicant by way of determining the rights violations in his file and the remedies to address these violations. Source
 
Attorney Figen Çalıkuşu”

The 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice has written its reasoned judgment concerning its rejection of the appeals against the aggravated life sentences given to Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Nazlı Ilıcak and their three co-defendants on “coup” charges.
 
The 42-page reasoned judgment of the appellate court was made public on 17 October by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
 
Lawyers representing Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan issued a public statement in relation to the appellate court’s judgment, asserting that neither Turkey’s Constitutional Court nor the European Court of Human Rights had found incriminating evidence in the file.
 
Noting that procedural provisions and the principle of a fair trial were disregarded throughout the proceedings, the lawyers also wrote that the offense of “violating the constitution” as defined under “Article 309/1 of the Turkish Criminal Code, was subjected to a de facto modification in defiance of the intention of the legislative body.”
 
An English translation of the statement can be accessed here. Source

An appeals court in İstanbul on Tuesday upheld aggravated life sentences handed down to six jailed journalists including prominent figures Ahmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak.

The journalists were given the sentences by the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court in February after their conviction of attempting to destroy the constitutional order.

The appeals hearing of Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Ilıcak as well as two former employees of the now-closed Zaman newspaper, Zaman brand marketing manager Yakup Şimşek and art director Fevzi Yazıcı, along with former Police Academy lecturer Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül, was held at the 2nd chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Law, which serves as an appeals court. Ahmet Altan’s brother, Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and journalist, was also given an aggravated life sentence, but was released pending appeal in June based on a decision of the Constitutional Court, which said Altan’s rights were violated during the trial. Mehmet Altan had been in pre-trial detention since September 2016.

Both Mehmet Altan and Ahmet Altan, who were detained on Sept. 10, 2016, were accused of sending “subliminal” messages regarding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 on a TV show a day before the abortive putsch.

The appeals process of the journalists will now continue at Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals. During this process, Mehmet Altan will not be jailed.

Mehmet Altan, Ilıcak, Yazıcı, Şimşek and Özşengül attended the hearing at the İstanbul Regional Court of Law on Tuesday while Ahmet Altan remained in Silivri Prison and attended the hearing via the IT Voice and Image System (SEGBİS).

Ilıcak said in court on Tuesday that her defense is being ignored although she has refuted all the accusations directed against her.

The journalist said the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Mehmet Altan sets a precedent for her case and that the top court, which will take up her case this month, will probably rule for a rights violation in her case as well.

“I did not commit a crime. I am asking for the end of my victimization by an acquittal or at least by my release based on the top court’s ruling on Mehmet Altan,” Ilıcak told the court.

Ilıcak used to work for the Bugün daily, the Özgür Düşünce daily and Can Erzincan TV, which were all closed down by the Turkish government following the coup attempt due to their links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of masterminding the failed coup. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.

Yazıcı’s lawyer, Mesut Yazıcı, said his client had nothing to do with a Zaman daily TV commercial that is associated with the coup attempt, adding that the daily’s then-editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı had the only say over the paper’s TV commercials from their preparation for the broadcasting stage.

It is claimed in the indictment that the Zaman TV commercial, aired nine months, 10 days prior to the failed coup on July 15, 2016, was a signal for the military coup attempt by the Gülen movement. Prosecutor Murat Çağlak claimed that through TV ads in which a baby smiles after scenes of chaos the Gülen movement sent messages to its members.

Zaman was also closed down by the government following the coup attempt due to its links to the Gülen movement.

The lawyer asked for the acquittal and release of his client.

In his defense, Mehmet Altan said he was given the jail sentence without any concrete evidence of a crime against him.

The journalist read the Constitutional Court’s verdict on him, which ruled that his right to freedom and safety has been violated.

“With this ruling, the Constitutional Court protects me against those violating the Constitution. In line with this ruling, your court releases me and the state pays me compensation,” said Altan, adding that if there is law in Turkey, the only decision to emerge from the court should be his acquittal.

Özşengül, who was the next to deliver his defense, said he and the other defendants in the trial are unfortunately being subjected to a criminal law that is seen in fascist governments.

“I am getting an aggravated life sentence without any concrete evidence being presented against me. … It is very surprising for me to be in this trial,” said Özşengül.

Şimşek said he has been jailed for 793 days without any concrete evidence of a crime against him.

“I am asking for my acquittal or at least my release. Being tried without arrest is the norm. I want to see my old parents,” he said.

Ahmet Altan, who was the last to make his defense during Tuesday’s hearing, accused the court of disregarding the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Mehmet Altan, saying that he and the other defendants are being tried by judges who refuse to comply with the Constitution.

“They want to punish me, but they can’t find anything in the law and judicial system to legitimize it. They can’t find it and will not do so. Because I am right. I don’t care about spending my life in a prison cell because I feel myself wandering in a comic book. Nothing seems serious or startling to me. When you base a punishment on a ‘subliminal message,’ ‘immaterial force,’ ‘abstract threat,’ then that punishment has no seriousness,” Ahmet Altan said, underlining the weakness of the evidence against him. Source

After a preliminary hearing in June, an Istanbul regional court will today begin examining the substance of the appeals of three well-known journalists, Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak. If it confirms their sentences, they will end their days in prison, subjected to a drastic form of solitary confinement, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns.

At the end of the original trial in February, the three journalists were sentenced to “aggravated life imprisonment,” the Turkish judicial system’s harshest punishment, which precludes any possibility of a pardon and prohibits temporary releases. They are aged 68, 65 and 74 respectively.

Under Turkey’s sentence implementation law, persons convicted of “aggravated life imprisonment” are confined to an individual cell nearly all day, are allowed just a single one-hour visit by a close relative and a ten-minute phone call every two weeks, and are not let out of prison for any reason other than hospitalization. When an ailment cannot be treated in the prison infirmary, they are taken to an isolated room in a state hospital.

Arrested in September 2016, the Altan brothers and Ilıcak were convicted 18 months later of “trying to overthrow the constitutional order” in connection with their journalistic activities, in particular, their criticism of the authorities during a TV programme broadcast the day before the July 2016 coup attempt.

Their trial was marked by many procedural violations and a refusal to comply with a binding Constitutional Court ruling that Mehmet Altan’s prolonged detention constituted an unwarranted violation of his rights. It was only after resisting the Constitutional Court’s order for six months that the justice system finally released Mehmet Altan, under judicial control, in June. He will return to prison if his sentence is upheld on appeal.

“Subjecting the Altan brothers and Nazlı Ilıcak to the harshest prison conditions would be an act of political revenge in its purest form,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “It is high time to end this persecution, which dishonours Turkey. The appeal court must take account of the rulings issued by the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in this case. The conviction of these three journalists must be overturned.” Source