Bid to punish lawyer who has taken ‘defamation of Erdoğan’ to Constitutional Court

Özgür Urfa, Attorney-at-law, whose application asserting the unconstitutionality of ‘defamation of Erdoğan’ trials which have seen hundreds arrested and many also taken into pre-trial detention has been remitted to the Constitutional Court, has been summoned to give statement.

Lawyer Urfa, who was complained about to the bar association for ‘defaming Erdoğan’ in a defence he made in a ‘defamation of the president’ trial being heard in Kırklareli, submitted his defence to the Istanbul Bar Association to which he is affiliated and, with the charges dropped following his defence, Erdoğan’s lawyers and the Republic prosecutor then objected to this ruling. But this objection was also rejected by the bar association.

The Ministry of Justice filed proceedings with the Ankara Administrative Court to secure the setting aside of the bar association’s said objection. Along with this, the ministry wrote a letter to Ankara Republic Prosecution and requested that an investigation be launched on the grounds that the wording in this petition ‘may constitute the offence of defaming the president’ in Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code.

In response to this, Ankara Republic Prosecution wrote a letter instructing Istanbul Republic Prosecution to take lawyer Urfa’s statement. Lawyer Özgür Urfa, who was summoned to give statement in a call from the police, did not attend at the police station to make a statement, saying, ‘A statement having to do with the duties of a lawyer must be taken by the prosecutor in person.’

Lawyer Urfa, speaking to Meryem Yıldırım of İleri, said, ‘I will go to the prosecutor’s office to make a statement to the prosecutor who ordered the statement.’

THERE IS A WISH TO PUNISH THE LAWYER WHO HAS TAKEN ‘DEFAMATION OF ERDOĞAN’ TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Urfa, who thinks that, with the complaint to the bar association failing to produce a result, the wish is now for him to be tried and punished under a complaint by the prosecution, said, ‘I think the basic reason for the complaint and crime report is because I have acted as lawyer in dozens of ‘defamation of the president’ trials and have been instrumental in this crime coming before the Constitutional Court for being unconstitutional.’