The judge was recently assigned and it was first time we saw him.
Since Hidayet Karaca had not appeared on the video screen yet, he began taking the statements of the arrested police chiefs.
We attentively observed the judge’s behavior.
Just as I was about to speak in the courtroom, my lawyer friend Doğan Akkurt, who was beside me, silently put a note he had written in front of me.
The note said:
“The guy seems to be a reasonable person.”My friend was right; the man seemed truly reasonable.
Doğan knew beforehand that my speech would be harsh.
“Could it be possible?” I said to myself.
Perhaps we had somehow encountered a regular judge.
Perhaps one of them would not act as the AKP’s gunman and he had accidentally gone unnoticed.
I started, lowering my voice a little bit.
I decided to revise my style of speech.
My defense for the victim of the century, Hidayet Karaca, lasted 4 hours and 17 minutes.
I was hoping that perhaps we might have encountered some sign of vitality in darkened consciences.
At the beginning of my speech, I told the judge, “I am sure that your decision for the extension of my client’s arrest is ready.”
He said, “How can you be sure.”
Of course, I am no soothsayer.
But I am aware who is acting like a judge, and who is simply a political servant.
Shamelessly, he says, “We didn’t ask to be a Criminal Court of Peace judge. Who would want such a thing?”
Well, I thought, if you don’t want to be a Criminal Court of Peace judge, why don’t you admit that “this case has nothing to do with terror” and release Hidayet Karaca, so you’ll be dismissed from the Criminal Court of Peace.
You will be dismissed and some other AKP hitman will be assigned to your post.
A judge who wants to be done with the Criminal Court of Peace would be sent away the moment he or she rejects to be a tool for the AKP terror.
For there is no way that a regular judge or prosecutor can get along with the AKP.
He or she would refuse to punish the AKP’s critics.
On one hand he lies about “not wanting the Criminal Court of Peace”, on the other he has a burning desire to take political revenge.
I was explaining that the voice records, where Mr. Gülen and Hidayet Karaca are supposedly talking with each other, are made up and put together; that they are “illegal proof” in the first place, because they were taken without a court decision; and that there are tens of precedents, when he interrupted me and said:
“Mister Lawyer, your talk is almost an insult to the human intellect. Of course the absence of a court decision make the proof illegal; such evidences cannot be used. Any jurist would know that. I think you are going too much into detail.”I said, “But the other five judges just did not agree with it and although one of your colleagues admitted it and said, ‘This is a mistake and should be fixed,’ he still ruled for the extension of my client’s arrest. What am I supposed to do?”
The judge smilingly nodded and kept silent.
What could he say?
You insist there is no need for details, but on the other hand you issue a warrant of arrest for Fethullah Gülen, whose only connection with this investigation is the illegal voice record.
If there is truly no need for details, then why are those obscure wiretaps, which aren’t even proper voice records and which you admitted were “illegal proof”, still in the case file?
Why don’t you remove them from the file?
The only thing that you have in that file is the transcription of the so-called voice record that supposedly contains Gülen’s conversation with Hidayet Karaca.
Just like the so-called conversation between Efkan Ala and the governor of Ağrı.
There is not even a voice record.
It is just a wiretap.
If you would forge a wiretap, as if two people talked on the phone, and put in on the Internet, those people would be done!
Is there really a voice record; did those people really talk with each other? They don’t even care to wonder.
They don’t bother to check whether the evidence, even if it is a voice record, has a judge’s warrant.
In the end, the judge decided for the extension of arrest and look what his statement read:
“… that the suspect Hidayet Karaca is an executive of the organization, which made broadcasts in line with the organization’s publicity policy…”The judge practically declares the whole Samanyolu Broadcasting Group a terrorist organization.
And he deems all the working staff at Samanyolu members of that organization.
That is to say, if you make critical broadcasts or if you work for a broadcasting company that is critical of the AKP, you are a terrorist.
Well, that is an insult to the human intellect.
It is as if the indictment is there, a lawsuit has been filed at a High Criminal Court, and after months, perhaps years of trials the verdict is finally declared.
This is not political servantship; this is militancy.
The man seemed to be reasonable.
However, he just seemed to, Doğan!
In other words, the AKP is very strict on Istanbul.
Judges of the Criminal Courts of Peace function like the AKP’s inquisition.
And without exception, all of them are loyal.
In order not to leave it to chance – that is, the law –, they have centralized all their illegal operations in Istanbul, in the guise of judicial investigation.
Published on BGNNews, 23 April 2015, Thursday
