The eighth hearing of the case in which Şirin Kabakcı, the former Konya representative of Zaman, was charged with “membership of a terrorist organization”, “insults through the press” and “violations of confidentiality”, was held at the Istanbul 35th High Criminal Court on 3 December 2019.  The hearing, followed by P24, began at 15.00 with a three-hour delay. Şirin Kabakcı and his lawyer Cumali Aydemir and Mehmet Şamil Şenalp’s lawyer Necmettin Cüneyt Şenalp attended the hearing. The hearing was followed by Kabakcı’s family. The President of the Court, Ahmet Aygün, said that the public prosecutor gave his opinion on 11 November 2019.

 “File should be divided from insult and violation of privacy“

An investigation was initiated against Kabakcı with the complaint of Mehmet Hasip Şenalp, one of the owners of Kon TV, for ”insulting through the press”. However, the file was closed in 2015 with no need for prosecution. The file, which was reopened after the July 15 coup attempt, was combined with the case in which Kabakcı was tried on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization”.

Prosecutor Emre Us demanded that the file be separated for insult and violation of confidentiality through the press and that Kabakcı be punished for membership of a terrorist organization. “Although we have declared in our opinion that the conciliation provisions should be applied on the offense, we will give the opinion after these provisions. There is no legal link between “the offense of membership of a terrorist organization” and “the offense of insult and violation of the confidentiality of the investigation”. For this reason, it is requested to make a decision for the offense in respect of these crimes and to punish the accused for “membership of a terrorist organization”. said he.

Cumali Aydemir, Kabakci’s lawyer, also requested time to prepare his defense on the merits. The court adjourned the hearing to 20 February 2020.