Three Academics Sentenced to 1 Year, 3 Months in Prison

Yazar / Referans: 
Hikmet Adal, Bianet
Tarih: 
01.07.2019

Having their final hearings at the İstanbul 32nd Heavy Penal Court, three academics have been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison for having signed the peace declaration. The announcement of their verdicts has been suspended.

Trial of academics, who have been charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime" prepared by the Academics for Peace, continued in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse today (July 1).

At the İstanbul 32nd Heavy Penal Court, Dr. Lecturer Umut Azak; Research Assistant Erdem Üngür from İstanbul Kültür University and lecturer Aslı Odman from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSGSÜ) had their fifth hearings; and lecturer E.D. from FMV Işık University had his ninth hearing.

Deferred prison sentence for 3 academics

While academic Aslı Odman presented her statement of defense in her fifth hearing, academics Azak, Üngür and E.D. have been sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK). The announcement of the verdict has been deferred.*

What does the Article 7/2 of the TMK say?

Any person making propaganda for a terrorist organisation shall be punished with imprisonment from one to five years. If this crime is committed through means of mass media, the penalty shall be aggravated by one half. In addition, editors-in-chief who have not participated in the perpetration of the crime shall be punished with a judicial fine from one thousand to fifteen thousand days' rates. However, the upper limit of this sentence for editors-in-chief is five thousand days' rates. The following actions and behaviours shall also be punished according to the provisions of this paragraph:

About the Trials of Academics

On January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled "We will not be party to this crime" on behalf of the Academics for Peace initiative.

With the participation of further academics, the number of academics who have signed the declaration has reached 2,212.

With the indictment issued by the Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt, lawsuits were filed against the academics on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713.

As of June 28, 2019, 636 academics had stood trial since December 5, 2017, all the 200 academics whose cases were concluded have been sentenced to prison. 142 of these academics were sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison; 8 academics to 1 year and 6 months in prison; 16 academics to 1 year, 10 months and 15 days in prison; 17 academics to 2 years and 3 months in prison; seven academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison; five academics have been sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison; and one academic to 3 years in prison.

Non-deferred prison sentences for 35 people

Of these 200 people, the verdicts of conviction of 36 academics in total have not been deferred; while the verdicts of 29 people have not been deferred as their prison terms are over 2 years (as per the Article 286 of the Law on Criminal Courts, the verdicts of 7 academics have not been deferred as they did not accept the deferment of the announcement of their verdicts.

With her 15-month prison sentence upheld by the court of appeal, Academic for Peace Prof. Dr. Füsun Üstel has been arrested since May 8, 2019.

The academics given non-deferred prison sentences are as follows:

Ayşe Erzan, Özdemir Aktan, Nesrin Sungur Çakmak, Füsun Üstel, Büşra Ersanlı, Lütfiye Bozdağ, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Özgür Müftüoğlu, Yonca Demir, Gençay Gürsoy, M.A., Alper Akyüz, Ahmet Bekmen, Nihan Aksakallı, Hülya Kirmanoğlu, İsmet Akça, Haydar Durak, İlkay Özküralpli, Öznur Yaşar Diner, Remzi Orkun Güner, Esra Kaliber, Eda Aslı Şeran, Aysuda Kölemen, İlkay Yılmaz, Zeynep Tül Süalp, L.N., S.A., Gevher Gökçe, Çare Olgun Çalışkan, Nevin Zeynep Yelçe, Ali Kerem Saysel, Koray Çalışkan, S.I. Süreyya Topaloğlu, Ayşe Gül Altınay, Noemi Levy Aksu.

On March 10, 2016, the Academics for Peace made a statement for press and shared with the public what they had been going through since the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" was published. The academics Dr. Lecturer Esra Mungan, Dr. Lecturer Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy (March 15, 2016) and Dr. Lecturer Meral Camcı (March 31, 2016), who read out the statement for press, were arrested on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law. They were released on April 2016. Upon the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Justice granted a permission of trial as per the Article No. 301 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 301 on charges of "insulting the Turkish Nation, the State of the Republic of Turkey and the institutions and organs of the government."

* As per the Article 231 of the Law on Criminal Courts (CMK), when a court rules that the announcement of a verdict shall be suspended or deferred, the verdict/sentence is removed in the event that the person does not commit an intentional crime in five years.

(HA/SD)

Source: https://bianet.org/english/freedom-of-expression/209960-three-academics-...