Historic defence from Ahmet Şık: The guests in Silivri after us will be the lackeys of this period

Our newspaper’s reporter Ahmet Şık, currently on remand charged with making FETO propaganda, has appeared before a judge on account of comments he made on exiting Silivri Prison in 2012 where he had been held on remand in connection with the Oda TV trial. Of the 39 judges and prosecutors named as injured parties in the indictment against Şık in which up to seven years’ imprisonment is sought for his comment, ‘Those who cooked up this conspiracy will go to jail,’ 28 have been expelled from the profession. Included among the latter 28 are judges and prosecutors who are on the run and are on remand.

With journalist Ahmet Şık, who has been held on remand for 53 days, and his counsel attending the hearing that was heard today at Silivri Penal Court of First Instance No 2, the hearing was also monitored by PEN International, Reporters Without Borders, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions Press Trade Union and the EU Turkish Delegation. Many of Şık's colleagues were also present in the courtroom to show their solidarity.

Şık said the following when addressing the hearing:

‘I was remanded in 2011 as one of the accused in the catchall trail then known as Ergenekon. I was held on remand for thirteen months in this chain of conspiracies. The perpetrators of the conspiracy were known as far as I am concerned, and as far as everyone is concerned. I am referring to the mafia-like organisation that had become entangled within the civil service and the security service, a mafia organisation, the Gülen brotherhood. Having shored itself up with the AKP’s political support, it set out to purge everyone it held to be enemies. I was remanded under various ensuing conspiracies. The release order came on 12 March 2012. I made a speech in front of the prison gate. At one point in this speech I said the following thing: “The police who carried out this conspiracy and the judges and prosecutors who played a part in conducting the conspiracy will enter the prison I have exited.”

I am an atheist. So, I am incapable of cursing. What I said was not a curse. I have never been a charlatan who trades in religion. So, I was not engaging in soothsaying. I was making an assessment of the situation by synthesising the concrete facts drawing on my political experiences. In short, this assessment turned out to be correct. Thanks to this speech of mine, I think 39 judges and prosecutors complained about me, alleging that I made them into targets for a terrorist organisation and defamed them. I do not remember if the prosecutor who drew up the file was from that organisation, but my lawyer was at my side when I went to make statement. The statement-taking procedure took the form of, “Mr Şık, change these statements and let’s close this file.” And I said, “I stand fully by what I said,” and prosecution commenced. Of the 39 judges and prosecutors who voiced their complaints up until about three months ago, 30 are either on remand or have fled. So, the conclusion that I reached through synthesis drawing on my political experiences and in which I assembled the concrete facts turned out to be true. I am still being prosecuted.

This is an unacceptable state of affairs. You are also temporary and I don’t know how many changes of judge there have been in this trial, but these proceedings are being conducted with the logic that, since I was being prosecuted in the Ergenekon trial, the indictment there stands. “The accused was being prosecuted in the Ergenekon trial, so he was backed up by the strength of the terrorist organisation and made the judges and prosecutors into targets.”

I am a journalist. I do not threaten and I do not engage in soothsaying. I try to write the truth on the basis of concrete facts and what I said pointed to a truth, and I was actually vindicated. But, in the prosecution taking place here, I consider you to be blameless. The result of the other prosecution is being awaited. If I am punished in that case, it will be ruled that I threatened and defamed. If I am acquitted, a ruling to the opposite effect will emerge. This is not how justice can manifest itself. So, I must be acquitted here.

And, currently, similar members of the judiciary to those who in the past undertook to act as the Gülen brotherhood’s lackeys are, too, organised within the judiciary to act as the AKP’s lackeys. I will make another assessment. The fate that befell the Gulenist’s judges and prosecutors will also befall these judges and prosecutors. The AKP has on its fifteen-year journey to power even washed its hands clean of people whom they called comrades in the cause. They have abandoned everyone they at one time needed and who supported them in their own illegalities, so let them not imagine that they will not abandon those judges and prosecutors, let them not imagine that they will not abandon those from whom support for this oppression emerged. I repeat this again here. The judges and prosecutors who have undersigned the lawlessness that I currently face will also enter this concentration camp, but will do so as genuine criminals. I call for my acquittal in this trial, too.’

Şık's counsel, Can Atalay, also applied for Şık's immediate acquittal. The court judge, stating that he was a temporary judge, ruled that examination be made of the file and, thus, that the hearing be adjourned until 26 April.