Recusal application in Cumhuriyet trial dismissed

At the fifth hearing on 25 December 2017 of the trial being heard at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 27, presiding judge Abdurrahman Orkun Dağ first barred Ahmet Şık’s address, finding it to be “political,” and then expelled Şık from the courtroom.

In the second half of the hearing, lawyer Fikret İlkiz applied for Şık to be admitted to the courtroom. Dağ dismissed the application, saying, “It has become apparent that comments which create a political basis will impair the order and discipline of the proceedings.” At this, Bahri Belen, one of the trial lawyers, stressing that the interrupting of Şık’s comments would conjure up the threat that there would be a restriction on the language employed while mounting the defence in the course of the proceedings, applied on behalf of all the Cumhuriyet trial detainees for the recusal of the court bench, whose impartiality had been called into question. Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 28, which examined the recusal application, initially asked for a recommendation from the prosecutor over the application. The prosecutor then framed a recommendation taking the form: “The matter of the order and security of the hearing and also the timetabling and duration of events in hearing the defence and witnesses are matters that are at the initiative of the presiding judge who manages the hearing. Since, indeed, rejecting the recusal application is not in breach of procedure given that the move taken in this regard at the hearing is not a situation that would warrant recusal of the judges, it is recommended that the application be dismissed.” The court bench then dismissed the recusal application in its ruling of 18 January 2018, copying this sentence while retaining its typographical errors. The same court sentenced the editor-in-chief of our newspaper’s website cumhuriyet.com.tr, Oğuz Güven, to three years and one month’s imprisonment on the count of publishing FETO propaganda and the PKK’s proclamations for an announcement Tweet that was corrected and deleted in 55 seconds.

Silivri objection dismissed

Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 27 stated at the 25 December 2017 hearing that it had made an assessment on the matters of security and order on grounds such as, “the good order of the proceedings and interference by and the abundance of spectators” and ruled that the sixth hearing slated for 9 March be held at Silivri. Our newspaper’s lawyers objected both to this decision and the extension of detention order. The superior court also adjudicated these applications and asserted that there had been no change in the grounds for detention, arguing that there was evidence pointing to the existence of strong suspicion of guilt. The court, which argued that the trial court’s order was procedurally and legally compliant, dismissed both objections. The court adduced no reasons for its dismissal of the objection to the hearing being held at Silivri.