Professor Büşra Ersanlı arrested in Nov on terrorist act accusations as part of an investigation into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), was discharged unfinished trial on Friday along with 15 other suspects in the case.
Many suspects in the case appealed the İstanbul 15th High Criminal Court recently in an effort to profit from a law which was inserted in a recently approved juridical reform package, calling for their release from prison pending trial. They debated that the recently approved reform package allows them to spend the remainder of the trial outside of prison. The courtroom received their request on Friday, ruling in favor of the release of 16 suspects.
Ersanlı, along with publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, was apprehended in November on terrorism accusations as part of an investigation into the KCK, an umbrella group that allegedly comprehends the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and associated organizations. Zarakolu was released pending trial in April.
Ersanlı, a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) constitutional commission, confronts 22-and-a-half years in jail on accusations of directing a terrorist organization. In a recent interview, Ersanlı refused the accuses and told all her activities were within the boundaries of freedom of expression and freedom of association.
The KCK is charged of trying to build an alternative system of governance and terrorizing locals in the country’s predominantly Kurdish areas. Most of the accused face charges of membership in and/or aiding and abetting a terrorist group.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu recently voiced concern over Ersanlı’s arrest and told while he “doesn’t consider Ersanlı is a terrorist,” he doesn’t have the right to interpose in the judiciary. “Ms. Ersanlı is an academician who manifested a very democratic position during the military coup of Feb. 28, [1997]. I do not think she’s a terrorist, but the truth that I’ve this view, as a minister, doesn’t allow me the right to interpose in the judicial process,” Davutoğlu stated.
Meanwhile, a Diyarbakır courtroom on Friday disapproved an indictment prepared concerning the investigation into the KCK quoting deficiency of authority because of the recently approved law. The court disapproved the indictment in accordance with the same law included in the third judicial reform package.
Among other things, the law restricts the powers of specially authorized courtrooms dealing with coup and terror cases, abolishing and putting them back with regional terrorism courtrooms.
The Diyarbakır 6th High Criminal Court, which used to hear the major trials such as the KCK main trial, unresolved murders and Hizbullah when it had the title of a specially authorized court, disapproved the indictment prepared into twenty-eight individuals recently captive as part of the KCK investigation because it lacks the authority to hear the case as it has been stripped of its special powers.
Prosecutor Levent Kaya who organised the indictment, is anticipated to undergo the document to the regional high criminal courts that will replace specially authorized courts
