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Turkish court combines judge killing, coup cases

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Turkish Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a lawyer accused of killing a judge and merged the case with the trial of a right-wing group accused of plotting a coup. Alparslan Arslan was sentenced to life in prison in February for the May 2006 killing of Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin in protest of a February 2006 ruling by the court permitting a school to deny promotion to a teacher because she wore a religious headscarf. Arslan's case will be merged with the trial of 86 defendants accused of attempting to destabilize and overthrow the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The accused are said to belong to the secular Ergenekon group, believed responsible for bombing the headquarters of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, assassinating Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and planning other attacks to provoke a military coup to topple the AKP. The court found that the killing of the judge and the coup plot are related and consolidated the cases. The issue will now be whether the case should be heard in Ankara, where Arslan was originally convicted, or in Istanbul, where the coup trial is taking place. The alleged members of Ergenekon were indicted in July. Among them are journalists, intellectuals, and Turkish Workers' Party leader Dogu Perincek. Two former generals were also arrested in connection with the alleged plot. The trial began in October and resumed after being adjourned because of "chaos" in the courtroom.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).