Tension continues in ongoing KCK trials

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Chief judge orders audience and observers to leave the court as tension rises between lawyers and the court members in the ongoing KCK case. AA photo

Tensions continued to rise between the court and lawyers in the second trial of the ongoing Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) case as lawyers objected to the court’s reading of a summarized version of the indictment yesterday, saying it limited their rights.

Some 147 suspects, 139 of whom are under arrest for alleged links with the “urban wing” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), turned their backs on the court for protesting the lawyers’ demand to listen the full text of the indictment.

Lawyer Müşir Deliduman demanded the indictment be read by the prosecutor entirely, but the chief judge, Ali Alçık, said the indictment was already handed to suspects and their schedule was to finish the reading in eight days.

When a defense lawyer tried to enter the courtroom without an identification badge security forces attempted to remove him from the room which provoked a quarrel between suspects and security forces.
Alçık ordered audience and observers to leave the court. Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder was also be extricated from the hall.