Ahmet Altan, a detained journalist-writer, was sued on charges of “insulting the president” and “organization propaganda” because of his article titled “Ezip Geçmek” which was published on 27 June 2016 on haber.com. The Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court, which conducted the proceedings, sentenced Altan to 5 years and 11 months of imprisonment for 3 years on charges of organization propaganda and 2 years and 11 months on charges of insulting the President. On 17 December 2019, the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Courts of Justice, who examined the file carried by Altan’s attorneys, upheld the sentence imposed on him. The 3rd District Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Courts of Justice rejected the appeal of Altan’s lawyers on the grounds that there was no violation of the law on the merits and procedures, and that there was no missing evidence in the proceedings.
Acquittal for the “Defamation to Atatürk’s memory”
On the other hand, the 18th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Courts of Justice ruled the acquittal of Altan by abolishing the imprisonment term of 1 year and 6 months for ”publicly insulting Atatürk’s memory”. The Istanbul Anatolian 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Altan to one year and six months’ imprisonment for insulting Atatürk’ memory in the trial on 2 July 2019 due to his article titled “CHP” which shutted down newspaper “Taraf” published on 4th of November 2010. Examining the appeal filed by Altan’s lawyers, the Istanbul District Court of Justice 18th Criminal Chamber ruled that Altan’s conviction be abolished and Altan’s acquittal. In its decision of 26 December 2019, the 18th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul District Court of Justice noted that the elements of the offense had not occurred.
Altan’s lawyer Çalıkuşu:
“We will request law every day by petitioning”
Ahmet Altan was released on 4 November 2019 after three years and two months of imprisonment. Later, upon the objection of the prosecution, he was arrested again on 13 November 2019 with the decision of the 27th Assize Court of Istanbul. Lawyer Figen Albuga Çalıkuşu sent a petition to the court after the case file was sent to the 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul District Court of Justice on 31 December 2019. She demanded the immediate release of Ahmet Altan, who was arrested after “heavy law and legal violation after the conviction”. “We will call the law by giving petitions every day,” said Lawyer Çalıkuşu.
“End legal disgrace at once”
In his petition, Çalıkuşu noted that his client was arrested again with legal bullying: The lawyer asked the Istanbul Regional Courthouse Court 2 Criminal Chamber, which is the upper court, to eliminate unlawfulness and violations of the legislation. “The subject of this petition, which is a first in Turkey, is appeal of a prosecutor, although not authorized the court of law and judicial control measures to be discharged with the provisions, applied to Ahmet Altan 8 days after the constitutional and legal rights “no counting’ appeal over and crime is to arrest”. To be able to make this arrest, Constitution of the Republic of Turkey was diminished. In vain effort, such as being able to conform to the provisions of the CMK, the articles of the law were perplexed in astonishment. The highest Chamber has an obligation to eliminate this serious unlawfulness and deliberate breach of legislation with all its consequences, which confiscate the freedom of the client with legal bullying. The Chamber, which has the authority to supervise the first-instance court order, should immediately terminate this legal disgrace.”. In her petition, the first-instance court after the decision of the case file handed, the authority of the Supreme Court of Appeal and reminded that the authority. She stressed that another first-instance court had no jurisdiction to touch the verdict upon appeal.
The complete application can be found at this link
Source: P24