İstanbul - The hearings of 17 people against whom separate individual cases were opened, with indictments of “terrorist propaganda” due to their informing against themselves at the Prosecutor's Office in solidarity with Academics for Peace which signed the petition "We will not be a party to this crime,” continue. The first hearing of economist Necmi Demir who was among these 17 people was held today at İstanbul 28th High Criminal Court.
In the hearing where Necmi Demir and his lawyers were present, Arat Dink, who was also one of the 17 people being tried was also among those who observed the hearing. In his defence, Demir stated, “I reject the accusations. I request my acquittal.”
Demir’s lawyer Oya Meriç Eyüboğlu told the court: “Primarily, we request immediate acquittal. This case is not of the same eligibility as the cases of the academics. My client is not an academic anyway. The text signed by my client is merely composed of just one paragraph of the petition signed and published by the 1128 academics. We believe that the text subject to our case also does not constitute a crime. It is about indicating the need for identifying rights violations and amelioration of the negative environment.”
Eyüboğlu, who stated that the text should be evaluated within the scope of freedom of expression, requested that the case be closed by reaching a verdict of immediate acquittal.
The court, which rejected the request for immediate acquittal, gave Necmi Demir and his lawyers additional time to study the case file and prepare their defense statements until the next hearing. The next hearing will be held on October 31st.
