By Daren Butler
Reuters
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court on Tuesday put off the trial of five prominent journalists until April in a case seen as a fresh test of curbs on freedom of expression in the EU candidate nation.
The columnists are charged over comments they made about an Istanbul conference in September on the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
The trial was adjourned until April 11 so prosecutors could assess the defense’s technical complaints, the judge said.
The hearing got off to a bad start when the judge asked one of the plaintiff’s lawyers to leave for speaking up, and when police tried to eject him, they scuffled with lawyers.
Prosecutors filed charges against the columnists in December, and the five men face between six months and 10 years in jail if found guilty of charges of “trying to influence the judicial process” and “insulting state judicial organs.”
European Member of Parliament Joost Lagendijk — who faced similar charges until Turkish prosecutors dropped the case last week — told reporters that if the journalists are convicted, “it will have consequences for the EU accession process.”
The journalists had all criticized efforts by prosecutors and nationalist lawyers to ban an academic conference at two universities in Istanbul to discuss the Armenian issue.
Ankara has always denied claims that the Ottoman forces committed genocide against local Armenians but, under EU pressure, has called for historians to debate the issue.
Four of the writers were charged under Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, the same used against Orhan Pamuk, the country’s most famous novelist.
Pamuk was charged under a separate clause of Article 301, which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity, but the case was later dropped in a move hailed by the EU.
Such cases mostly end in fines or acquittal.
Defendant Ismet Berkan, a columnist for Radikal newspaper, accused those behind the trial of refusing to accept EU standards on freedom of expression.
“This is a symbolic day for those who resist the EU. This resistance may continue for some time with a few cases, but it will end,” he said outside the courtroom.
Outside, riot police kept tight security while about a dozen nationalist protesters chanted, “This is Turkey. Love it or leave it!”
Yorumlar kapatıldı.