İstanbul - Third hearing of the trial where Die Welt correspondent and German citizen Deniz Yücel faces “making terrorist propaganda” and “provoking the people to hatred and animosity” charges was held at İstanbul 32nd High Criminal Court today.
Deniz Yücel was arbitrarily detained for a year in Turkey without an indictment and was finally released in February 2018 to stand trial without detention. However, Yücel returned to Germany and is currently tried in absentia. Yücel’s lawyer and MLSA Co-Director Veysel Ok represented him in the courtroom today.
Ok stated that letters rogatory have not been received yet and added, “I’ve talked to my client about this. A hearing will be held in a Berlin rogatory court on 10 May and that is when he will present his defense statement; therefore, we request the court to adjourn the trial until a later date.”
The court accepted this request and decided to wait for the letters rogatory from Germany. The trial is adjourned until 16 July.
Among those who monitored the trial were representatives from the German Consulate, German Press Agency (DPA) members, members of local and foreign press including the ARD Radio.
