Lawyer of Prof. Dr. Nihal Saban, who is on trial at Istanbul 37th Assize Court due to signing the petition, “We Will Not Partake In This Crime” by the Academics for Peace, Metin İriz received the “scientific opinion” of Ankara University Faculty of Law Department of Criminal Law and Law Criminal Procedure Prof. Dr. Türkan Yalçın on Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law.
Yalçın’s scientific opinion involved the petition text, the indictment against the academics and a summary of Nihal Saban’s defense statement. The opinion debated the relationship of freedom of expression and the “right to criticism” with the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. Yalçın pointed out that reasons presented as “being similar to the bespoke, jargon and speeches of the terrorist organization” and “the timing of the petition” are not reasons based on concrete, tangible evidence that would pose crime elements. Yalçın further indicated that the correctness of a verdict made through assumptions without the suspects eliminated can not be reasoned with personal conviction.
The scientific opinion, prepared in accordance with Article 67/6 of the Law of Criminal Procedure that states, “Scientific opinion may be obtained by the Public Prosecutor, participant, representative, suspect, defendant or legal advisor from an expert on the expert report or in order to be evaluated prior to the preparation of the expert report on the case subject.” You may find the full opinion on https://www.dusun-think.net/dosya/rapor/adsiz-doku776man.pdf.
14.01.2019
bianet.org