Jurists: Not a scrap of justice

Jurists have expressed their reactions to the passing of arrest orders on the midnight shift following the release decisions in the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation media trial.

Turgut Kazan, Attorney-at-Law, former Istanbul Bar Association Chair:
One of the most striking and typical examples showing that there remains no trace of the thing called the judiciary in Turkey. There is no way that what took place last night can be assessed within the law. Certain circles looked at the incident saying, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ With certain places seeing things this way, the judiciary immediately stood to attention and picked the people up. How is a jurist to assess this situation? This is not an incident to have taken place within the law. The same applies to those detained on the prosecutor’s objection. The prosecutor is not supposed to be entitled to object once the court has ordered release. I will leave this to one side. These people are already under prosecution. How can there be a coup investigation on top of this? They can do the same to everyone, citing a coup investigation. This procedure is the clearest proof that nobody has any safeguards at all.

Erdal Doğan, Attorney-at-Law:

The subject of penal prosecution law is the defendant. If the court here has passed a release decision, no provision has been made empowering an objection to this release decision. So, the prosecutor objected under a broad interpretation that was to the detriment of the defendants and to the detriment of freedom. And the judiciary went along with this. This is an error in legal terms. Something of this kind previously happened to HDP MP Ferhat Encü. He was released by the court, and the prosecution then objected to this release and he was detained. In this way, new anomalies have started to come into being in penal prosecution. The way has been opened to practices and precedents that are dangerous in terms of freedom and in terms of safeguards within penal prosecution.

Ümit Kardaş, Attorney-at-Law:

This is truly a legal scandal and anomaly. In fact, that judge passed a conscientious ruling in the court. After all, there was not the slightest evidence in the file of membership of a terrorist organisation. A certain force exerted pressure on the judiciary. It does not hold water in legal terms. It is not human. What a shame. The people had suffered injustice. They had been separated from their families for eight months and left ruined economically. They were given a taste of the joy of release. But it stuck in their craws. Of course, hopefully they won’t be detained, but I have little hope. I am very sad as a jurist of 45 years’ standing. Legal certainty has vanished. Nobody has trust in the law and the judiciary. Cem Küçük is actually committing a crime. What entitles him to malign a judge? Is such a thing acceptable? His speech amounts to a crime but he speaks with great confidence. These developments come following his reaction. This is a terrible situation.