Rabia Çetin
The second hearing in the defamation lawsuit filed by Adnan Tanrıverdi, the founder of the International Defense Consulting Company (SADAT), against Evrensel newspaper over allegations of a violation of personal rights took place at the Bakırköy 4th Commercial Court of First Instance in Istanbul. The court rejected Evrensel’s request to dismiss the case on the grounds of the statute of limitations.
SADAT had initiated the lawsuit following the publication of an article titled “An incident: Allegations about SADAT and a concept: Paramilitary organization” in Genç Hayat (Young Life), a supplement of Evrensel, on June 9, 2021. At the hearing, SADAT’s lawyer, Abdullah Üsame Ceran, attended virtually, while Evrensel’s lawyer, Devrim Avcı Özkurt, was present in the courtroom.
The presiding judge noted that responses had been received from inquiries sent to the Büyükçekmece 5th Criminal Judgeship of Peace and the Istanbul 17th Civil Court of First Instance during the previous session. However, the Büyükçekmece 5th Criminal Judgeship of Peace stated that “no such case file exists” in their records.
During the proceedings, SADAT’s lawyer Ceran argued that Evrensel had clearly violated his client’s personal rights, adding, “There is no need to wait for further responses to these inquiries. We request the full acceptance of the compensation amount we have demanded.”
On the other hand, Evrensel’s lawyer Özkurt contended that the plaintiff had failed to prove moral damages. Özkurt also pointed out that Evrensel had not responded to one of the inquiries due to an address change, requesting the court to resend the inquiry to the updated address.
After hearing the statements, the judge ruled to reject Evrensel’s statute of limitations claim, which was based on the argument that more than two years had passed between the publication of the article and the lawsuit filing date. The court also acknowledged the death of Adnan Tanrıverdi during the interim period and decided to add his children as plaintiffs in the case.
The court further ordered that another inquiry be sent to Evrensel and postponed the next hearing to May 20 at 11:35 a.m.
