|
Although the İstanbul 7th Penal Court of Peace has asked Twitter to block access to the account of Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni, who recently claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan went to Italy with a large amount of money on Sept. 27, Twitter has refused to implement the court's decision, a move that may result in the site being blocked in Turkey.
Fuat Avni said in a series of tweets on Oct. 4: “In Italy, Bilal will manage accounts in Switzerland and other countries. Bilal has billions of dollars to manage.” Claiming that Bilal flew to Italy on Sept. 27 and plans to remain there for a while, with family members possibly joining him later, Fuat Avni wrote: “They are planning to keep Bilal in Italy until the [Nov. 1] election. They will decide whether or not he will come back depending on the situation after the election.” The whistleblower said there is a plan in place for President Erdoğan and his family to flee a possible trial on corruption charges if necessary after Nov. 1 and that Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu is organizing the plan.
After Fuat Avni's claims were reported by media outlets, Bilal Erdoğan's lawyer filed a complaint against Fuat Avni's Twitter account, asking for a court to block access to it on the grounds that the tweets breach his rights. In a decision on Oct. 6, the İstanbul 7th Penal Court of Peace decided to demand that Twitter block access to the account in Turkey, but the popular social media website has refused to implement the court decision.
However, Paragraph 4 of Article 9 of Law No. 6518 clearly states that a judge can decide to block access to an entire website if convinced that the removal of content that violates the personal rights of complainants has not been ensured by the website itself.
Professor Yaman Akdeniz from Bilgi University's law school and Associate Professor Kemal Altıparmak from Ankara University challenged the decision on Thursday, seeking its annulment. Speaking to Today's Zaman, Akdeniz said the court has ruled that access to Twitter must be completely blocked in Turkey if the website fails to block Fuat Avni's account.
İPEK ÜZÜM / ISTANBUL
Akdeniz and Altıparmak are known for filing a petition with the Constitutional Court in March of last year after the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government blocked access to Twitter on March 20, 2014. The block was revoked on April 2, 2014 as a result of Altıparmak and Akdeniz's petition.
The Constitutional Court then partially amended certain articles of the Internet Law passed by the government last year following the academics' petition to annul the law on the grounds that it constituted an obstruction of basic freedoms.
Recalled the top court's ruling, Akdeniz told Today's Zaman that any attempt to block Twitter would be unconstitutional because it would contradict the Constitutional Court's decision. The academic also discussed his personal thoughts about a possible block on access to Twitter, saying: “You cannot block access to a social networking site in a democratic society. Such a move would violate Article 22 and Article 26 of the Turkish Constitution. The rights of millions of Twitter users [in Turkey] to use the site cannot be restricted due to tweets from just one Twitter account. This would be nothing more than censorship.”
Akdeniz wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday: “The Turkish president and his son [have] obtained a court order to block access to Twitter if the company does not close the infamous @fuatavni_f account.”
Fuat Avni also tweeted on Monday that after plans for a possible flight from the country had been revealed, Erdoğan was worried on Monday morning due to fears the revelation would “cause resentment in the bureaucracy.” The whistleblower also claims that other people in addition to Bilal are also being sent abroad by President Erdoğan to manage his money secretly.
|
Poem
Manşetler
Spor
Son Dakika
Haber
Yerel Haberler
