Agos journalist not guilty of influencing judiciary

Friday, June 15, 2007
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

A court in Istanbul yesterday found Agos weekly journalists Serkis Seropyan, Arat Dink, Aydın Engin and Karin Karakaşlı not guilty of trying to create undue influence on the judiciary for articles criticizing the conviction of former editor-in-chief of the paper, Hrant Dink.
The charges against Dink, who was murdered in January by a 17-year-old extreme nationalist, was based on an article where he said: “The clean blood that will replace the poisoned blood of the Turk is present in the honored veins that will be established between the Armenian and Armenia.” Several people, including the controversial nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz had filed complaints against the journalist. The Şişli Prosecutor's Office then took on the case, filing charges against Dink for 'insulting Turkishness'. Dink had argued that what he meant by the statement was that Armenians had the strength to overcome their destructive hatred of Turks. The Şişli Court dropped the charges against Dink, and decided that there was nothing illegal in the articles written by Seropyan, Arat Dink and Karin Karakaşlı.

However, the court decided to file a complaint against Aydın Engin for insulting the judiciary in his article “This judiciary should be ‘touched.'”

The court also said that Karakaşlı, who was being accused of insulting Turkishness together with Dink, was not guilty.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.