My petition to our prosecutor

Dear Prosecutor of ours,

Do not worry. Just because I am sending you a petition does not mean I am going to write things about you.

For example, I am not going to mention things like your being a Fethullah Gülen Terror Organisation (FETÖ) defendant in the case known as the ‘Selam Tevhid plot’, or your also being a defendant facing a double life sentence, while all the time holding the post of prosecutor.

I will not mention, that, if what I hear is true, you are a witness in the case being prosecuted by Ankara Republic Chief Prosecution known in the media as the ‘main FETÖ trial’, either. I will not dwell on the legal oddity of your being a defendant in one FETÖ case and a witness in another FETÖ case. This situation clearly entails the same kind of peculiarity as “hot ice”, “a square circle”, “a fish that cannot swim” or “a true lie” and makes an entertaining addition to the annals of oxymorons. I mean, were I to make the pronouncement: “A witness in one FETÖ case is the defendant in another FETÖ case,” everybody would wonder whether this journalist had lost his marbles, would they not?

But, do not worry. My petition is not about these things or your circumstances.

I will speak of an agony deep within me.

Dear prosecutor,

As you know, ten of my colleagues have been remanded in custody at your behest. They have become unwilling occupants of “residence” number nine in Silivri. As to Hikmet Çetinkaya and me, we were released. In fact, in the end we will all be tried together, some of us on remand and some of us not. But, the fact remains that they are inside and I am outside.

This makes me feel left out. It nags away and a faint sense of shame grips me.

Please do not construe these words to mean that I am begging to be remanded as well.

My petition is to the point and contains a very brief request.

Two days ago you took the statement of Cumhuriyet Foundation Chair, our brother Orhan (Erinç), the last of the our group of suspects whose homes you ordered to be searched and twelve of whom you ordered to be arrested. As such, the legal process known as “prosecution statements” has ended. The task that now befalls you is to draft the indictment against us and to remit that indictment to the appropriate serious crime court. No remaining obstacle or bureaucratic procedure stands in the way of your drafting the indictment.

When the serious crime court accepts the indictment awaited from you, we will be promoted from the status of ‘suspect’ to ‘defendant’ (just like you, in fact), and we will then appear before the court.

My request of your hallowed office is as follows:

Please, draft your indictment and send us before the competent serious crime court. Each day that you delay the indictment amounts to the imposition of an ‘unjust punishment’ on my colleagues in Silivri. After all, any judge who looks at the file that I know by heart and remains true to the values he or she is meant to uphold will at the very least rule that my colleagues be released pending trial.
Of course, that is if he or she does not decide to acquit the defendants brought before him or her on such shaky evidence in a single session before further mockery is made of the law and justice.

Respectfully yours.

Signature: Non-remanded ‘suspect’ Aydın Engin