Court Rules To Release Journalist Karaca, Jailed Police Officers

Lawyers representing Samanyolu Broadcasting Group CEO Hidayet Karaca and some 63 police officers who were arrested in government-backed operations targeting police force announced that an İstanbul court ruled to release their clients pending trial on Saturday.

Karaca, who was being held in Silivri Prison without any indictment or any reason for the extension of his arrest, was detained as part of a major media crackdown on Dec. 14, 2014, just three days before the first anniversary of the massive corruption investigations of Dec. 17 and 25. The year before the major crackdown on the Samanyolu Broadcasting Group and Turkey's best-selling daily Zaman, the government used all means possible to muzzle the remaining free and independent media to prevent questions about corruption.

“Good news for Turkish democracy and freedom of press. The İstanbul 32nd Court of First Instance ruled for release of Hidayet Karaca,” lawyer Fikret Duran said. ruled for release of Hidayet Karaca,” lawyer Fikret Duran said.

The lawyer said during a live TV interview that the lawyers received the court ruling and waiting for a written copy of the ruling to take it directly to the Silivri Prison to pave the way for Karaca’s release pending trial. The lawyer said there are claims that the chief public prosecutor is trying to prevent the ruling from being implemented.
İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Hadi Salihoğlu allegedly held an emergency meeting at İstanbul Courthouse to block the ruling’s appearance in the National Judiciary Network Project (UYAP).
Kemal Şimşek, one of the lawyers of dozens of police officers, who were arrested and held in Silivri Prison on trumped-up charges of illegal wiretapping and spying in a government-orchestrated investigation that began on July 22, also announced on Twitter that the same court also ruled for the release of the jailed police officers.

More than 115 police officers and senior police chiefs were detained in the early hours of July 22 on charges of espionage and illegal wiretapping in two separate probes, and they were later arrested. However, the arrests, dubbed the “parallel state operation,” are widely seen as an act of revenge by the government for a corruption investigation that became public on Dec. 17, 2013, that targeted the sons of now-former ministers, bureaucrats and businessmen close to the government.

The term “parallel state” was coined by then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to refer to sympathizers of the faith-based Hizmet movement, whom he sees as responsible for the Dec. 17 graft probe. The lawyers for the officers have asked the court scores of times for the release of the police officers, but their applications have been rejected each time.

Tensions ran high outside İstanbul courthouse after defense lawyers were given the court ruling to be delivered to the Slivri Prison management. Police took strict security measures as the lawyers were leaving the courthouse. A reporter from Samanyolu TV was briefly detained by the police while some defense lawyers were beaten.

A copy of the İstanbul 32nd Court of First Instance was also shared on Twitter by the lawyers. The court said while reasoning its ruling that the suspects should be released as there is no concrete evidence that would require their arrest and they are not likely to flee the country as they did not attmept to take such an action and that they surrendered police themselves.

The judge said a series of human rights violations that were made during the detention of Karaca is the basis for the ruling to release the journalist.

Karaca was arrested following a government crackdown, which targeted 27 people, including scriptwriters and a graphic designer, Karaca and three former police chiefs were arrested on charges of leading a terrorist network, while other detainees, including Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı, were released pending trial.

In a decision announced on Dec. 19, 2014, Judge Bekir Altun decided in favor of the arrest of Karaca, although Karaca's questions about evidence of his alleged terrorist activities remain unanswered.
The only “evidence” supporting Karaca's arrest is a fictional TV series that was aired on Samanyolu TV in 2009 that mentions an extremist organization named Tahşiyeciler. The organization, which is sympathetic to al-Qaeda, was later subject to a police operation in which its leaders received prison time. The prosecutor argues that it was Karaca who plotted against this terrorist organization by means of sending messages to the police chiefs through the TV series that aired on his TV station. The judge used an illegally acquired phone conversation of Karaca in 2013 to arrest him for events that transpired in 2009, although the illegal wiretap was excluded from the case after Karaca's lawyers objected.

In response to claims over attempts to block the enforcement of the judgment, lawyers and legal experts said it is impossible to block the implementation of a court ruling once it is handed down. Former public prosecutor Gültekin Avcı, who is among the lawyers of Karaca, said, nobodu can prevent a ruling from being enforced. He said it does not matter whether a court ruling appears at UYAP or not as it would be enough for the ruling to be submitted to the prison management personally.

Lawyer Ömer Turanlı, who is among the lawyers representing jailed police officers, said any attempt to block the implementation of the court ruling constitutes a crime.

“Anyone who delays or blocks this ruling’s enforcement commits a crime,” independent İzmir deputy Ertuğrul Günay, also a jurist, tweeted on Saturday night.








SHOT LIST
Sunday, April 26, 2015 SOURCE: CIHAN
Crowd in front of prison
Families of officers
People with flags in hands     
Interview with mother of officer
Duration: 03: 43