A lawsuit was filed against conscientious objector Burak Özgüner due to not paying the fines issued against him due to draft evasion. Akören District Governorate of Konya sentenced Özgüner to a 1486 TL fine for three times (4459 TL in total) between the dates July 27, 2017 to January 24, 2018. Özgüner refused to pay these fines and applied to the Constitutional Court on January 10, 2018 for vesting of his right to conscientious objection.
The Constitutional Court did not issue a verdict on Özgüner yet, whereas in the indictment prepared against Özgüner, the Prosecutor’s Office claimed for Özgüner to be prosecuted with an imprisonment claim for up to one year in accordance with Article 63 of the Military Penal Code regulating “draft evasion and deserting.” The Prosecutor’s Office further claimed for the conscientious objector to be deprived of the usage of certain rights regulated in Article 53 of the Turkish Penal Code. The first hearing of the case will be held on June 25th at Konya 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance.
06.03.2019
bianet.org