Dündar gun assault case returned to lower court, journalist summoned for trial
ISTANBUL
AP photo
A court of serious crimes in Istanbul has transferred a case which will try the suspects in a May 6 assassination attempt against Turkish journalist Can Dündar to a lower court while summoning the famous writer to attend the next hearing on Oct. 21.The Istanbul 1st Court of Serious Crimes returned the file case against suspects Murat Şahin, Sabri Boyacı and Habip Ergün Celep, arguing that the attack on Dündar outside Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse did not fall within the remit of “serious crime,” saying the suspects’ actions could not be regarded as a “deliberate attempt to murder” but constituted “deliberate injury” and “threat with a weapon.”
During the case’s last hearing on Aug. 25, Dündar’s lawyer, Bülent Utku, said the suspects should be tried on charges of organized crime as their testimonies bore inconsistencies, prompting them to demand the court dismiss the case and transfer it to an upper court.
Now, however, the Istanbul 28th Penal Court of First Instance, which initially tried the case, has received the dossier once more, issuing a summons for Dündar, who has not physically appeared as a plaintiff in any of the previous trials in the case. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
In the dismissal decision, the court also recommended that the arrested suspect in the attack, Şahin, face a jail term of 30 to 47 years, while one of the alleged instigators of the attack, Boyacı, should face up to 18 years while the other, Celep, should serve 15 years in jail for their actions against Dündar and Turkish broadcaster NTV correspondent Yağız Şenkal, who was wounded in the incident after being struck in the leg by a bullet.
Dündar, daily Cumhuriyet’s former editor-in-chief, was targeted in the attack which came while he was briefing press members during a break in his trial along with Cumhuriyet Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül in a case in which the two were later convicted of “leaking state secrets” over a story on Turkish intelligence trucks early in 2014.
Dündar is currently living overseas.
During the case’s last hearing on Aug. 25, Dündar’s lawyer, Bülent Utku, said the suspects should be tried on charges of organized crime as their testimonies bore inconsistencies, prompting them to demand the court dismiss the case and transfer it to an upper court.
Now, however, the Istanbul 28th Penal Court of First Instance, which initially tried the case, has received the dossier once more, issuing a summons for Dündar, who has not physically appeared as a plaintiff in any of the previous trials in the case. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
In the dismissal decision, the court also recommended that the arrested suspect in the attack, Şahin, face a jail term of 30 to 47 years, while one of the alleged instigators of the attack, Boyacı, should face up to 18 years while the other, Celep, should serve 15 years in jail for their actions against Dündar and Turkish broadcaster NTV correspondent Yağız Şenkal, who was wounded in the incident after being struck in the leg by a bullet.
Dündar, daily Cumhuriyet’s former editor-in-chief, was targeted in the attack which came while he was briefing press members during a break in his trial along with Cumhuriyet Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül in a case in which the two were later convicted of “leaking state secrets” over a story on Turkish intelligence trucks early in 2014.
Dündar is currently living overseas.
