The Çağdaş Tuzla newspaper, publishing in Istanbul, decided to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in order to bring former Justice and Development Party (AKP) mayor Mehmet Demirci to justice by reason of the unlawful closure of the newspapers offices. Demirci had the newspaper premises locked up and sealed on 26 September 2006.

Owner of Çağdaş Tuzla ('Contemporary Tuzla) newspaper Halil Özen said that they took the decision to approach the ECHR upon the unlawful order of the Tuzla Public Prosecution to drop the case against Demirci.

The newspaper was closed under allegations of "unauthorized work in a vacant building" and resumed work upon a referring judicial decision. Issues regarding Demirci's religious perceptions and his implementations in the municipality were broadly discussed in the media in this context.

State Council: Review the matter and send us the results

In the decision no. 2007/1527 the State Council 1^st Chamber requested "a preliminary review carried out by an authority in charge based on the documents and crucial evidence of the allegations, to establish a decision based on the outcome of the preliminary review report, lift the decision of the Ministry of the Interior and send the file after finishing these proceedings".

Inspector: Newspaper's claim justified

Upon the application of the State Council's decision, Civil Chief Inspector Mustafa Tam was assigned by the ministry and emphasized in his inspection report on 16 April 2008: "The newspaper's claims were justified regarding both the unlawful closure of the office and the belated implementation of the court decision. Furthermore, circumstantial evidence proved that the municipality officials committed this criminal offence and prepared contradictory statements and documents". Tam informed the ministry about his conclusion that the responsible people should be prosecuted.

The Ministry of the Interior issued permission to litigate Demirci, who affixed the seal to the newspaper's office, and the other municipality officials.

Domestic remedies exhausted

A complaint of "misconduct of office" was filed against Demirci in the course of the developments. However, the case against the former mayor was dropped by the decision of Public Prosecutor Ali Bahadır on 14 October 2009. Hereupon, newspaper officials applied to the ECHR since domestic means of law had been exhausted.

Özen won the invalidation suit related to the sealing of the office in 2006 at the Istanbul 7^th Administration Court. He reminded that the file is still kept at the State Council because the municipality appealed against the decision. The newspaper owner stressed the fact that the order to drop the case was contrary to the law since it was given before the previous decision had been taken. "Even if the State Council approves the decision of the Administrative Court, it is impossible to have Demirci tried", Özen argued. (EÖ/VK)