The new Turkey
Ragıp Zarakolu
Özgür Gündem newspaper journalist

22-Feb-2020 10:39

24 December 2019:

Court rules for partial confiscation of Ragıp Zarakolu’s property

The “KCK Istanbul main trial,” in which 205 activists and politicians are standing trial on various terrorism-related charges, resumed on 24 December 2019 at the 3rd High Criminal Court of Istanbul. This was the 39th hearing in the case.

Publisher and human rights activist Ragıp Zarakolu, who has been living in Sweden since 2013, is among the defendants in the case, where he is charged with “aiding a terrorist organization” over a speech he gave at a Political Academy seminar organized in 2011 by the now-defunct Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Professor Büşra Ersanlı and author-translator Ayşe Berktay are among Zarakolu’s co-defendants in the case.

Zarakolu’s lawyer Şenur Bayboğa addressed the court in connection with a request submitted by the Presidency of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) under the Ministry of Finance, seeking the confiscation of Zarakolu’s property. The lawyer objected to the request, saying that earlier in the trial, the court had granted Zarakolu exemption from attending hearings. She added that the court was informed about Zarakolu’s permanent address in Sweden for his statement to be taken abroad. The lawyer also noted that the government of Sweden rejected Turkey’s request for Zarakolu’s extradition.

Issuing its interim decisions at the end of the hearing, the court ruled to wait for the execution of the arrest warrants against the defendants who have yet to give their statements to the court. The court rejected the request for Zarakolu’s statement to be taken abroad and ruled to wait for the execution of the arrest warrant against him. The court also ruled to “partially accept” a request dated 23 December 2019, in which the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office sought the “confiscation of Zarakolu’s property in Turkey in order to ensure that he attends the upcoming hearings.”

The court set 14 May 2020 as the date for the next hearing.

5 September 2018:

Red notice issued for Ragıp Zarakolu
 
A Turkish court has ordered a red notice to be issued for Ragıp Zarakolu, a columnist for the dailies Yeni Yaşam and Evrensel, and a publisher. The red notice was issued on grounds of an arrest warrant for Zarakolu as part of a case in which he is charged with “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization” on account of a lecture he gave in 2011 at the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) Politics Academy. Zarakolu was placed in pretrial detention in October 2011 and released in April 2012 as part of this trial.

Özgür Gündem trial adjourned until October
 
Latest hearing in trial of members of the shuttered Özgür Gündem newspaper’s editorial consultation board was held on 4 June at the Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court.
 
The defendants, novelist Aslı Erdoğan, linguist Necmiye Alpay, journalists Filiz Koçali, Ragıp Zarakolu, Bilge Contepe, Özgür Gündem Editor-in-Chief Bilir Kaya, publisher Kemal Sancılı and lawyer Eren Keskin, are charged with “disrupting the integrity of the state and the unity of the nation,” “membership in a terrorist organization,” and “terrorism propaganda.”
 
The hearing, followed by P24 from the courtroom, was attended by Kızılkaya, Alpay and Keskin while Sancılı, who is in prison, addressed the session via video-conferencing system from İpsala Prison.
 
Keskin said at the hearing that she was on trial in 143 cases for showing solidarity with Özgür Gündem. “I voluntarily put my name as a co-editor-in-chief because Özgür Gündem is one of the most heavily oppressed newspapers in this country. Now I am being tried in 143 cases because of articles whose content I don’t know about. This is against freedom of expression and norms of international conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights,” she said.
 
Lawyer Özcan Kılıç requested the court to order the release of Sancılı and lift travel ban for Keskin, saying she was nominated for awards abroad. The court ruled to lift an arrest warrant against Zarakolu because his address abroad was known to the court but rejected requests for release of Sancılı and the lifting of the travel ban on Keskin.
 
The court also decided to give the case file to the prosecutor for preparation of the final opinion and adjourned the trial until 10 October 2018.