Students face 15 years of jail

ISTANBUL - Radikal

A newly appointed prosecutor in an ongoing trial has requested between seven and a half to 15 years in prison on terrorism-related charges for three university students who unfurled a banner demanding free education in 2010.

The previous prosecutor Kasım İlimoğlu had requested the students’ acquittal, arguing their act was constitutional and fell within the limits of the freedom of expression, according to reports.

Prosecutor Adem Özcan who replaced him following his appointment to the case, however, demanded on March 9 that the students, Ferhat Tüzer, Berna Yılmaz and Utku Aykar, be sentenced on charges of membership of a terrorist organization. Ferhat Tüzer, a mechanical engineering student at Trakya University, Berna Yılmaz, an anthropology student at Ankara University and the other suspect Utku Aykar opened a banner demanding free education during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with the Roma community on March, 2010. Tüzer and Yılmaz were subsequently arrested but later released after remaining behind bars for 18 months, while Aykar was tried withour arrest.