Atilla Taş, Murat Aksoy and Davut Aydın released in the FETO media formation trial

Zehra Özdilek
 
Singer Atilla Taş and journalists Murat Aksoy and Davut Aydın were released in the FETO Media Formation trial in which 29 people, including Murat Aksoy and Atilla Taş, stand charged, 23 of them in detention pending trial. The hearing was adjourned until 4 December.
 
In attendance at the hearing of the trial that has commenced at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 25 situated at the Istanbul Judicial Complex in Çağlayan were 23 detained defendants and four on release pending trial. In the trial, in which two defendants have fled, thirteen of the defendants are charged with “attempting a coup”, while the others face charges of “membership of a terrorist organisation”.
 
“Am I the sacrificial goat?”
 
Atilla Taş, presenting his defence, noted that he felt himself to be like the unfortunate bedouin in the story and said his name and terrorism could only be brought together by way of joke. Taş, pointing out that the newspaper he writes for comes out in line with statutory requirements, said “What did Atilla Taş do? He posted a Tweet and wrote in a paper. It is supposedly a crime to write in that paper. Am I the only one to write in that paper? With this paper’s Ankara representative going to the public prosecutor’s office without a care in the world and no investigation even being opened into other writers and with some people on the run, am I the sacrificial goat? Why has Atilla Taş spent fourteen months in jail when those who have uncles on their father’s side or mother’s side, who have ByLock, who have fathers-in-law are free as birds?” Taş, saying, “I have grown weary of being beaten with the stick of the law,” continued, “I am very weary. I have had my fill by now and if I am to be punished let’s have it and go, I am up for it.”
 
“My only weapon is my pen”
 
Aksoy, in turn, said, “I have had trouble understanding from the outset. I have been released pending trial for organisation membership but I am in pretrial detention for the offence of “force and violence.” I did not use force and violence. My only weapon is my pen and my keyboard. And my tongue which I couldn’t hold.”
 
Following the defences, the hearing prosecutor sought Taş and Aksoy’s release. The court ordered the release of the detained defendants Taş, Aksoy and Aydın.
 
The hearing was monitored by CHP parliamentarians Barış Yarkadaş and Ali Şeker, Reporters Without Borders Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu, Journalists Union of Turkey General Chair Gökhan Durmuş and the defendants’ families. The court bench passed a release order at the first hearing in the trial of the journalists, who are alleged to have been part of “FETO’s media formation”. The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, citing these releases as grounds, suspended the court bench and the prosecutor, and appointed another bench to conduct the trial.