(RSF/IFEX) – In a 6 November 1997 press release, RSF reports that, on 6 November, during the Afyon (western Turkey) Court of Assizes’ tenth hearing in the trial of eleven police officers accused of murdering journalist Metin Goktepe, Kamil Serif, the presiding judge of the panel hearing the case, asked to be taken off the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 6 November 1997 press release, RSF reports that, on 6
November, during the Afyon (western Turkey) Court of Assizes’ tenth hearing
in the trial of eleven police officers accused of murdering journalist
Metin Goktepe, Kamil Serif, the presiding judge of the panel hearing the
case, asked to be taken off the case. The judge explained his request by
first saying that Turkish and international organizations, according to
him, were trying to put pressure on the tribunal. He then condemned what
according to him are unjustified criticisms of him published, with or
without ill intent, in Turkish media outlets. One of the Goktepe family’s
lawyers, Kamil Tekilsurek, reacted by claiming the judge’s decision was
above all due to the pressures on him coming from within the judicial
hierarchy and from Turkish authorities. The prosecutor decided that the
Court of Assizes in Sandikli (a city near Afyon) would rule on Serif’s
request by 27 November 1997, the date set for the next hearing in the
Goktepe trial.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 9 October, 17 September, 22 August, 30 July 1997,
18 October, 9 January 1996, and others**
At the end of the hearing, which took place before 40 or so journalists,
the court also ruled that five of the accused police officers were to
remain in detention. A date for the reenactment of Goktepe’s murder has
still not been set.
RSF hopes Serif’s request will not cause new delays in the case, “which
seems more than ever to be dragging in squabbles over procedure.” RSF is
stunned that, more than a month after the court’s decision to reenact the
murder, a date has still not been set. RSF says it “hopes a date will be
set as soon as possible, in order to get to the bottom of a case which has
thus far been so neglected.”