Lawyer Aslan: Prolonged Detention of Student Edemir Unfounded

The prosecutor prepared a five-page plea for the release of Hüseyin Edemir, student of the Middle-East Technical University (ODTÜ) pending trial. Edemir has been detained for the past 14 months on charges of "membership of an illegal organization". However, the court decided to keep the student in prison.

Prosecutor İlimoğlu: File reached status of limitation

At the fourth hearing on Tuesday (8 March), Prosecutor Kasım İlimoğlu put forward that the file should be closed by prescription due to the period of time that elapsed between 1999, the year the document related to the allegation was dated, and 2009 when the trial was opened.

İlilmoğlu pointed out that the evidence included in the file was invalid because it could not be confirmed whether the evidence had been approved or supplemented. Taking into consideration similar cases previously decided by the Court of Appeals, Prosecutor İlimoğlu demanded the acquittal of defendant Edemir.

Yet, Judge Ömer Diken who was presiding over the court board of the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court decided to extend Edemir's detention because "the existing evidence suggest a strong suspicion of guilt". The trial will be continued on 23 June.

Lawyer Aslan: Decision lacks proper reason

Also Edemir's layer Oya Aslan demanded the acquittal of her client. Aslan said in an interview with bianet that the final speech of the prosecutor had been legally correct and that she had made according claims since the beginning of the trial. According to Aslan, the court decision "lacked a proper reason".

"The court decided to continue the detention on the grounds of a 'strong suspicion of guilt'. There is actually no such thing, there are no documents other than the ones contrary to the law. There is no proof. [My client] should have been released pending trial at least but not even that was decided".

Edemir's fellow students from ODTÜ and his family issued a press release in front of the Beşiktaş Courthouse before the hearing. They criticized that Edemir's detention was not a precautionary measure any more but turned into punishment. They demanded a fair trial and the acquittal of Edemir.

Hüseyin Edemir was admitted to a full grant for the Turkish-German Social Sciences Master's Program after his graduation from the History Department of the renowned ODTÜ. During his first year in the program, he was taken into police custody on 31 January 2010 on the course of a General Information Scanning (GBT). He was arrested on 1 January 2010 under allegations of "membership of an illegal organization".

In 2005, an investigation was launched about Edemir because his name was mentinoned in documents seized in the scope of a police operation in 2001. An arrest warrant was issued for Edemir in 2009. He stands accused of membership of the Party and Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of the Turkish People (DHKP-C), a Marxist-Leninist party in Turkey. (EG/EÜ/VK)