Soldiers, lawyer come to blows at Ergenekon courtroom

SİLİVRİ - Doğan News Agency

Istanbul’s Silivri has faced another tense Ergenekon trial hearing. AFP photo

Lawyers and an the alleged coup plot “Ergenekon” trial and the gendarmerie forces came to blows March.11 at the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court after a judge ordered a lawyer to leave the courtroom.

The court yesterday continued to try 275 suspects, of whom 67 are under arrest. The court board announced that the lawyers would have only 15 minutes for their statements regarding the witnesses’ claims, but the lawyers reacted strongly and claimed that such a time limit was baseless.

The lawyers protested the court board by approaching the bench, causing a stir in the courtroom.

Chief Judge Hüseyin Özese ordered the gendarmerie to “take protesting lawyers out,” which was resisted by the lawyers. Özerse also called on intern lawyer to leave the court, adding that she was trying to take photos. The gendarmerie forces and lawyers then came to blows in the courthouse and extra gendarmerie forces were dispatched to the courtroom.

The lawyers demanded the court board be removed from the case, claiming that it had lost its impartiality.

When Republican People’s Party (CHP) İzmir deputy and journalist, Mustafa Balbay, who recently marked his fourth year in jail, declared, “the law and the national will have been trampled on in this case,” Özese ordered Balbay’s microphone to be turned off and did not allow him to finish his words.