Deniz Tekin
A Turkish court adjourned the trial of lawyer Necat Çiçek after the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ failed to send the investigation file to the court, stalling the proceedings.
The sixth hearing in the case, in which Çiçek is charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” was held at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court, in the majority-Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakır. Çiçek did not attend the hearing, but his lawyers, Mehdi Özdemir and Muhittin Moğuç, were present. The hearing was also observed by representatives from the France-based Defense Without Borders–Solidarity Borders (DSF-AF) Association, the Paris Bar Association, and numerous other lawyers.
Speaking first, lawyer Mehdi Özdemir told the court that the Tekirdağ Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had not submitted any documents related to the investigation it is conducting against Çiçek. Özdemir said this had caused the proceedings to stall and recalled that they had requested the Tekirdağ file be transferred to Diyarbakır due to a lack of jurisdiction, but had not received a response.
Özdemir emphasized that his client was being prosecuted solely for his professional activities as a lawyer and requested that the travel ban imposed on Çiçek be lifted. He also asked the court to reverse an interim decision to request the Tekirdağ file and instead forward the case to the prosecution for a final opinion.
Attorney Muhittin Moğuç, who also serves as the co-chair of the Diyarbakır branch of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), thanked the international observers attending the hearing. He echoed the call for lifting the travel ban on Çiçek and urged the court to abandon its request for the Tekirdağ investigation file.
The prosecutor requested the court reject the demand to lift the travel ban and instead seek clarification on the status of the Tekirdağ investigation file.
The court ruled to inquire about the status of the investigation file from the Tekirdağ Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and rejected the request to lift the travel ban. The trial was adjourned to Nov. 25.
