"If you rule to arrest a writer without evidence..."
Riportiamo la dichiarazione rilasciata da Ahmet Altan, che continua ad essere detenuto dal regime turco. Fonte: {http://platform24.org/en/articles/406/if-you-rule-to-arrest-a-writer-without-evidence--|Platform24}}
Ahmet Altan’s defense statement to the 1st Judicature of Peace in Istanbul, delivered on Sept. 23, 2016
Best-selling novelist and prominent columnist Ahmet Altan was arrested today on charges of membership in an armed terrorist organization and attempting to overthrow Turkey’s government. Here is his defense statement to the court:
I am struggling to understand the accusations I face. The law as I know it is interested in actions. It first identifies an action that constitutes a crime and then presents evidence. I am facing such a legal case that there are terrifying allegations, but not even the slightest bit of evidence.
This case is so lacking in evidence that to get me arrested, the prosecutor had to raid my house at the crack of dawn on the eve of the Bayram (Eid-al-adha) accusing me of “giving messages that cannot be perceived by consciousness.” It was under this accusation that I was detained.
I spent 12 days at the detention center of the Istanbul Police Department’s Counter Terrorism branch. I was arraigned after 12 days in detention, but the prosecutor disappeared these illogical accusations as if they were a magician’s ball.
Instead, they charged me with the horrendous crimes that I have spoken of. The new accusations I face consist of membership in a terrorist organization and attempting to overthrow the government of Turkey. It is said that I performed these crimes through messages that cannot be perceived by human consciousness. I see a lot of effort and a great deal of desire to get me arrested but I would think one must talk on the basis of evidence in a courtroom not on the basis of effort and desire.
The seriousness of the law, and of the state which forms the basis of the law, lies in documents and evidence. There is not a single piece of evidence regarding the allegations against me. There cannot be a single piece of evidence regarding the allegations against me. If all the prosecutors in this building put their heads together, they won’t find a single bit of evidence proving that I attempted to overthrow the government in an undemocratic manner.
This is what I have to say to the entire legal community, to the people in this courthouse, to all jurists who work in this courthouse: there is not a single piece of evidence on me. If, in this country, a writer is put under arrest simply because a prosecutor wants him arrested on a completely irrational ground, this would be an insult to the seriousness of the state, and an insult to the ability of this country’s administrators to rule. The jurists of this country have a duty to protect the law of the land, and the state and its people.
If you rule to arrest a writer in the absence of any evidence, just out of a single prosecutor’s spite, you will shatter the confidence people have in the law in this country. You will position this country and its leaders in a difficult position, both in the eyes of their own citizens and of the international community. If you put a writer under arrest without so much as a single piece of evidence, you will water down the investigation into the July 15 catastrophe; send it off the track and prevent it from being conducted responsibly. And this would be the most evil thing you can do the people of this country and its rulers.
An institution that has a duty to protect the law, the people and the state should be making judgments based on actions, and find serious and credible evidence regarding those actions if it is to continue performing its duties in a diligent manner. If you’ll allow me to ask once again, where is the evidence of my membership in a terrorist organization? Is there any possibility for a person who has devoted 35 years of his life to writing to be a member of a terrorist organization? Membership of a terrorist organization is defined by significant relationships, a life style brought along by those relationships and by performing duties within that organization. You cannot find the slightest implication or trace about these in my life, let alone a single piece of evidence.
You can rule to put me under arrest; you have the authority and power to do so, but it can only be possible for your ruling to be a legal decision that is in line with its commitments to society, one that will spare the leaders of this country the shame of ruling a lawless land by rejecting a demand based only on feelings of rage and revenge; so strongly devoid of any basis or proof.
I hope that you will reject the demand for my arrest not only for myself but for the credibility of law and justice in this country; for the continuation of the people’s trust in the justice, in the judicial system and the judges of this country and for the administrators of this country to be able to speak of legal developments in their country with their head held high in front of the international community.
