Court of Cassation upholds prison sentences of lawyers ‘with its conscience’

* Image: Murat Başol

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The Court of Cassation has handed down its ruling regarding the lawyers put on trial as part of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) case.

The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has ruled that the convictions of all ÇHD lawyers, except for lawyers Barkın Timtik, Selçuk Kozağaçlı and Ezgi Çakır, shall be upheld.

Considering that Ebru Timtik lost her life on death fast, the Chamber has concluded that there is no ground to hand down a judgement for her. The execution of the prison sentence of Aytaç Ünsal, who has recently ended his death fast for a fair trial, will be suspended until his treatment ends.

In its ruling where it has upheld the prison sentences of lawyers, among whom were also death fasting ones for a fair trial, the Court has said:

"...as it has been determined that all evidence was obtained in compliance with the law, the allegations and defenses put forward in the process were precisely presented in such a way to ensure appeal control, they were discussed without changing their essence and the conscientious conviction has been based on definite, consistent and nonconflicting data..."

Crime: Identification of lawyers with clients

The ruling of the Court of Cassation has referred to "the identification of lawyers with their clients" as a crime:

"Defending the member of any terrorist organization within the scope of Attorneyship duty is legitimate and it is not prohibited by the law.

"However, lawyers' identification with their clients, their actions in such a way to protect the terrorist organization and other members by going beyond the right of defense rather than protecting the individual rights and law of the clients, and the lawyers' leading their clients to engage in illegal activities against security forces and judicial bodies indisputably conflict with this duty and, therefore, it cannot be considered within the scope of fulfilment of duty."

'Examining evidence would take too much time'

Defendants previously appealed against the verdict, arguing that the pieces of evidence were obtained in an unlawful manner. Regarding this appeal, the Court of Cassation has indicated:

"...considering that a long period of time would have been necessary to examine the evidence out of normal circumstances and it was not possible to take a copy and submit it to the related authority at the time of seizure, no open contrariness to law has been detected in the related action according to the legislation in effect at the time when the crime was committed."

We made a mistake, but...

Even though it has admitted that the examination of the lawyers' request for recusation was not done in accordance with the due process of law, the Court of Cassation has still not seen a need to rescind it:

"Though the request for recusation was rejected by the court and a decision was taken without waiting for the expiration of the due period of objection, the procedural deficiency not considered effective in the result has not been deemed a reason for reversal as the reasons for rejection examined in the appeals control did not necessitate withdrawal from the case."

The Court of Cassation ruling has also argued that before the ruling was handed down after only three hearings, "the defending attorneys were given the right to speak and the necessary opportunities were provided to the defendants to use their rights of defense."

Files of three lawyers to be examined

The 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has ruled that the case of lawyer Barkın Timtik, who was sentenced to 18 years, 9 months in prison for "establishing and leading an organization" as per the Article 314/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), shall be evaluated together with the case where she stands trial for "being the member of an organization."

In its ruling regarding lawyer Selçuk Kozağaçlı, who was sentenced to 11 years, 3 months in prison in the ÇHD trial, the Court of Cassation has ruled that his case shall also be evaluated together with the case where he is facing charges of "leading an organization."

Ezgi Çakır, one of the attorneys of the lawyers, was sentenced to 8 years in prison. The Court has ruled that Çakır shall be penalized on charge of "knowingly and willingly aiding the organization" as per the Articles 314-3 and 227-2 of the TCK, just like lawyers Ahmet Mandacı, Zehra Özdemir, Ayşegül Çağatay, Yağmur Ereren, Didem Baydar Ünsal and Yaprak Türkmen.

The other upheld prison sentences are as follows:

Özgür Yılmaz: 13 years, 6 months

Behiç Aşçı: 12 years

Şükriye Erden: 12 years

Engin Gökoğlu: 10 years, 6 months

Aytaç Ünsal: 10 years, 6 months

Süleyman Gökten: 10 years, 6 months

Ayçan Çiçek: 9 years

Naciye Demir: 9 years

(AS/SD)