Lawyers Apply for Release of Journalist Şık

The lawyers of arrested journalist Ahmet Şık applied to the Istanbul 14^th High Criminal Court on Duty for the release of their client. At the same time, they addressed the Ministry of the Interior with a request to lift the ban from Sık's unpublished book.

Journalist Şık was arrested on 6 March in the context of the investigation into the clandestine ultra-national Ergenekon organization charged with various crimes to create chaos in the country that should eventually trigger a coup. Draft versions of Şık's unpublished book "The Imam's Army" were seized in a series of police raids last week.

The joint attorneys submitted the demand for the release of their client on Tuesday (5 April). In their petition they claimed that Şık's arrest lacked legal and actual reasons and that evidence for a strong suspicion of Şık's guilt did not exist. The lawyers stated that the allegations against Şık were created on the base of the book he was working on and that all the drafts of the book were seized anyways in the meantime. Thus, there was no danger of concealing evidence, the lawyers concluded.

Request for Şık's Release with reference to Judge Akçay's caveat

The joint attorneys furthermore referred to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and argued that their client's right to defence was not being recognized sufficiently. An arrest without clarifying the evidence for its reasons opposed the European Convention on Human Rights, the lawyers argued.

The petition also mentioned the caveat of Judge Şeref Akçay, President of the Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court to the continuation of the detention of Hanefi Avcı, arrested former Chief of Police. The lawyers claimed that the explanation for Akçay's caveat was also applying to Şık.

Demanding the Ministry to overturn the decision

Şık's lawyers also submitted a petition related to Şık's drafts of his yet unpublished book to the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court. This petition was going to be forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior. The lawyers claimed that the decision to seize all manuscripts and draft versions of the book was clearly in breach of the law and the legal system. The lawyers requested the Ministry to "overturn [the decision] for the benefit of the law" and forward the issue to the Court of Appeals in order to lift the decision according to Article 309 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CMK) (The power of opposition by the Chief Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation).

The lawyers indicated that considering the seizure decision, their client's rights to freedom of expression and defence were clearly violated. The lawyers voiced their opinion that whether the authority given to the political power is being used or not, it was a measure of the political power's approach to freedom of expression and the right to defence and its acceptance of the law.

The lawyers called the decision a "judicial scandal". The only legal way to avoid this scandal was to bring the topic to the Court of Appeals by the Ministry of Justice, the lawyers said. (EÖ/VK)