Turkey's internationally acclaimed writer Elif Shafak is acquitted of the charges of "insulting Turkishness" in her last novel "Bastard of Istanbul" in the first hearing of the trial in Istanbul's Beyoglu district courthall.

The court ruled that the legal elements of the attributed offense did not exist and the indictment was not supported with relevant evidence.

The trial was initiated by a letter of complaint from a "nationalist group", a self-acclaimed "Union of Grand Jurists" who charged Shafak with violating the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The Article was passed in 2005 in the legal reform pacakage, to replace a former Article 159, with the aim of adjusting Turkish Law with Copenhagen Criteria of the European Union. Howeever, in spite of introduction of a particular clause which exempts "criticism" from prosecution, at least 40 intellectuals have been indicted with violating the article under charges of "insulting Turkishness".

The last victim Elif Shafak was absent in today's hearing as she gave birth to a child last week, and the judge made a first-time ruling referring to Article 190/3 of the new procedural law which provides: "in cases when it is imminent, acquittal can be ruled without hearing the defendant's testimony".

Shafak said after the ruling that she is content with the ruling but such trials in fact damage Turkey's image.

Verbal clash between supporters of Shafak and nationalist group

There was tension during the trial between intellectuals and rights activist who came to support Shafak and the supporters of the nationalist jurist group.

The court rejected Kemal Kerincsiz's, head of the jurist group, appeal to intervene the trial and as they left the building verbal clashes between the two sides. The police having taken extraordinary safety measures avoided any conflict and took one human rights activist under custody.

Physical and verbal violence was rampart on previous trials of writers and journalists tried with the same article such as Orhan Pamuk, Hrant Dink, Perihan Magden, Murat Belge and Hasan Cemal where the so-called Jurists Union was involved.

Shafak case at a glance

Jurists Union leading member Kemal Kerincsiz's first complaint against the book led to a dismissal of proceedings on June 7 after which he appealed to the High Criminal Court.

The 7th High Criminal Court then returned the previous decision asking the court to evaluate the offensive content of what had been written, reviving proceedings against Shafak, Sokmen and the book's translator Asli Bicen

After publisher Sokmen appealed on grounds that "a published cannot be subjected to trial for a work whose author could be identified" proceedings where dismissed against him and the translator. Beyoglu Public Prosecutor Mustafa Erol, charged only Shafak under article 301/1 in his July 24 dated indictment.

"Father and Bastard" who was published on 8 March this year is already on the bestseller list and the book is sold in Turkey. Originally written in English, the book is in the publishing schedule of Viking/Penguin publishing house.

Elif Safak, a Turkish citizen, was born in France and spent her childhood in Spain. After studying political science in Turkey, she held teaching positions in the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the United States and then took the position of Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Near Eastern Studies at University of Arizona.

Her publications include both novels and essays, among them The Saint of Incipient Insanities, which was her first book published in English, Bit Palas, Mahrem, which won the Turkish Writers' Association Best Novel of the Year Award, and Sehrin Aynalari. She has also published reviews in The Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.(EO/EU/YE)