The trial against Taylan Tanay, official of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), and bianet website co-ordinator Ertuğrul Kürkçü, was continued before the Ankara 25th Criminal Court of First Instance on Thursday (27 January). The court decided to postpone the case in order to complete deficiencies of the case file.

Ali Suat Ertosun, member of the Judges and Prosecutors Supreme Council (HSYK) and former Prisons and Arrest Stations General Manager, filed a TL 15,000 (€ 7.500) compensation claim against the lawyer and the journalist because of an alleged attack on his personal rights. The charges stem from an article entitled "Ali Suat Ertosun's place is not on the HSYK but in the dock", published on 31 July 2009.

The Thursday hearing was presided by Judge Şule Yıldız due to a change of judges. Both the plaintiff's and the defence lawyers appeared at court.

Plaintiff lawyer Rabia Balkanlı demanded to decide the case, whereas the defence lawyers requested additional time to add missing documents to the case file. Tanay's lawyer furthermore requested that the court wait for the result of file no. 2010/172 of the Bakırköy 13th High Criminal Court. The coming hearing was scheduled for 10 March at 10.10 am.

Disclaimer from journalist Talu

Ertosun made journalist Umur Talu from the Habertürk newspaper publish a disclaimer in his column on 27 January by reason of previous articles about Ertosun.

The disclaimer was a response to Talu's articles entitled "If you had ultimately resigned, Mr Tosun!", "The insects in the castle", "Obedience and progress", "Justice is a matter of sense, first of all!", "Party party justice!", "Two tan-tans, one media", "Leapfrog" and "This court left you a heritage!".

The text referred to articles about Ertosun and the "Return to Life Operation" during his time as Prisons and Arrest Stations General Manager in December 2000. In the disclaimer it was said that they were "unreal allegations and comments deceiving the public that included a personal insult". (EÇ/EÖ)