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TURKISH JOURNALIST AGAIN CHARGED WITH VIOLATING ARTICLE 301: "THE STATE KILLED HRANT DINK"
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24443/turkish-journalist-again-charged-with-violating-article-301-%E2%80%9Cthe-state-killed-hrant-dink%E2%80%9D.html
15:36, March 14, 2013
Turkish journalist Temel Demirer first fell afoul of the law when
he stated, a day after Hrant Dink had been murdered, that : : "Hrant
Dink was not killed because he was Armenian but because he said that
there had been an Armenian genocide."
For this, Demirer was sentenced under Article 301, with the prosecution
demanding 2 years imprisonment.
At that time, changes in the controversial Article 301 had also reduced
the maximal sentence for "denigrating the Turkish Nation, the Turkish
Republic, its government or government institutions" to two years.
This trial had been postponed provided that, following Provisional
Articles 1 and 2 of Law 6352, he would not "commit a new crime under
Clause 1 within the next three years".
Now, Demirer is to be retried for violating the same Artcicle 301.
According to the police, after the first trial, Demirer declared the
following in front of the court building:
"If I don't say 'There was an Armenian genocide in Turkey' or 'the
state in Turkey is a murderer' for the next three years, I will be
acquitted. Right now, five minutes after the trial, without waiting
for three years, I say, 'The state is the murderer of Hrant Dink'. I
also say, 'There was an Armenian genocide in this country'. If the
court, security forces or the Ministry of Injustice that postponed
my trial do not open another trial, they will be committing a crime."
Levent Kanat, Demirer's lawyer, told Bianet that they had learned
about the new inquiry in the news and had not received an official
notification. For Kanat, the investigation is the result of a mentality
that has not changed: "They say they are becoming more democratic,
but that is not true."
http://hetq.am/eng/news/24443/turkish-journalist-again-charged-with-violating-article-301-%E2%80%9Cthe-state-killed-hrant-dink%E2%80%9D.html
15:36, March 14, 2013
Turkish journalist Temel Demirer first fell afoul of the law when
he stated, a day after Hrant Dink had been murdered, that : : "Hrant
Dink was not killed because he was Armenian but because he said that
there had been an Armenian genocide."
For this, Demirer was sentenced under Article 301, with the prosecution
demanding 2 years imprisonment.
At that time, changes in the controversial Article 301 had also reduced
the maximal sentence for "denigrating the Turkish Nation, the Turkish
Republic, its government or government institutions" to two years.
This trial had been postponed provided that, following Provisional
Articles 1 and 2 of Law 6352, he would not "commit a new crime under
Clause 1 within the next three years".
Now, Demirer is to be retried for violating the same Artcicle 301.
According to the police, after the first trial, Demirer declared the
following in front of the court building:
"If I don't say 'There was an Armenian genocide in Turkey' or 'the
state in Turkey is a murderer' for the next three years, I will be
acquitted. Right now, five minutes after the trial, without waiting
for three years, I say, 'The state is the murderer of Hrant Dink'. I
also say, 'There was an Armenian genocide in this country'. If the
court, security forces or the Ministry of Injustice that postponed
my trial do not open another trial, they will be committing a crime."
Levent Kanat, Demirer's lawyer, told Bianet that they had learned
about the new inquiry in the news and had not received an official
notification. For Kanat, the investigation is the result of a mentality
that has not changed: "They say they are becoming more democratic,
but that is not true."