Hasan Cemal and friends pose outside the courtroom before the hearing on Jan. 18.
Journalist Hasan Cemal appeared before the İstanbul 24th High Criminal Court on Jan. 18 in relation with his series of articles titled “A diary of withdrawal”, Canan Coşkun, who was in court covering the trial for Cumhuriyet reported.
Cemal was earlier tried for the same series of articles, but an acquittal verdict that came out in that case was overruled by an appeals court.
In the first instance trial, where Cemal was acquitted, one of the judges on the panel had voted against. It appeared that the judge who voted against acquittal also voted against the release of Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, the newspaper’s executive board President Akın Atalay and reporter Ahmet Şık in the ongoing trial into Cumhuriyet.
In the Cemal case, the appeals court cited another ruling by the Istanbul 22th High Criminal Court, where Cemal was convicted for “legitimizing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)” -- considered a terror organization by Turkey and sentenced to one year and three months. The appellate court said all of the articles by Cemal should be seen as elements of the same crime, although they might have appeared in print at different times.
Cemal, who testified in court. “I am here because I reject terror and violence. I am here because I defend peace. I refuse to live inside a lie and I want to underline once again that the regime being imposed on the people in Turkey that forces them to live a lie has nothing to do with law, freedoms or democracy.”
The prosecutor repeated his earlier opinion asking for up to 13 years in prison on charges of terror propaganda for Cemal. The court adjourned the trial until April 3.
