Kadri Gürsel: Turkey cannot live without justice

CHP Çanakkale Member of Parliament Muharrem Erkek has visited the Cumhuriyet managers in Silivri Prison. Our editorial consultant Kadri Gürsel passed on the message through the CHP’s Erkek, “Turkey cannot live without justice. The result to emerge from the hearing of the Cumhuriyet trial on 11 September must not widen the justice deficit further and must console wounded consciences in a way that grants at least a degree of relief.” CHP MP Erkek yesterday visited our colleagues who are being held at Silivri Prison, Akın Atalay, Murat Sabuncu, Kadri Gürsel, Ahmet Şık and Emre İper. Our editorial consultant Kadri Gürsel conveyed the following message:

Degradation in the judicial system

“A very wide section of society is united in the view that Turkey’s greatest problem is the degradation in the judicial system. There is no denying that imprisoning journalists and keeping them behind iron bars for months on charges of knowingly and willingly aiding a terrorist organisation on account of their professional activities has opened a deep wound in society’s conscience. Turkey cannot live without justice. So, the result to emerge from the hearing of the Cumhuriyet trial on 11 September must not widen the justice deficit further and must console wounded consciences in a way that grants at least a degree of relief. I say this as a journalist who has been imprisoned on charges relating purely and simply to professional activities.” Erkek, for his part, made individual Eid visits to the journalists during his visit, and indicated that the Cumhuriyet people “are well.” Erkek made the following assessment following his visit: “I think the unjust detentions will end on 11 September. If the press is free, society is free. Journalism is not a crime. I hope they will secure their freedom on 11 September, because they, along with their families, are suffering a grave miscarriage of justice that will be very hard to remedy. As a jurist, I know that it is a grave and unjust situation for an innocent person to be in jail. There is no situation as grave and unjust as an innocent person being in jail. They are journalists. I hope that on 11 September injustice and unfairness will not magnify further and their miscarriage of justice will not reach dimensions that defy remedy, and that the wounds in consciences will be assuaged if at least a little.”