Prosecutor files criminal complaint against Gülen for seeking legal rights


Date posted: April 13, 2015

İZZETTİN ÇİÇEK / ANKARA

Ankara Public Prosecutor Cevat İşlek has filed a criminal complaint against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen for seeking to bring a lawsuit against Akşam daily columnist Emin Pazarcı for insulting him.

Nurullah Albayrak, Gülen’s legal counsel, recently filed a criminal complaint against Pazarcı on the grounds that Pazarcı insulted and defamed Gülen in one of his columns. The Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office considered the column to fall under freedom of expression. Albayrak filed an appeal to a court to overturn the prosecutor’s decision, but the court rejected the appeal.

After the appeal was rejected, Pazarcı then filed a criminal complaint against Gülen on the grounds that Gülen defamed him through the legal complaint. While the Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office considered Pazarcı’s column to be under freedom of expression, Prosecutor İşlek prepared a three-page indictment defending Pazarcı’s claim. The prosecutor asked the court to punish Gülen.

After a corruption scandal erupted on Dec. 17, 2013, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, of plotting against the government through the graft probe.

Erdoğan defined the members of the movement, which is inspired by the ideals of Gülen, of being a “parallel state” and launched a witch hunt against the movement after the probe.

Source: Today's Zaman

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Closing prep schools as a new form of official tyranny

Thanks to the prep school system, with reasonable payments, the children of the “Black Turks” or “Mountain Turks” gain the chance to compete with the children of “White Turks” under equal standards. They, after graduating from good universities, become judges, teachers and academics and act as a catalyst in undermining pathological ways of thinking like labeling people as reactionary.

Why is the Gulen movement’s statement on press freedom significant?

BÜLENT KENEŞ As Turkey slows down its democratization and liberalization reforms, and occasionally backpedals on certain reforms, it runs into more serious problems. In particular, the slowdown in the democratization reforms Turkey is supposed to implement within the context of its European Union membership bid results in the deterioration of existing rights and freedoms. The […]

Turkey’s accused – Tragic stories of the purged

Turkey’s hunt for traitors after the failed July 15 coup has upended communities around the country and strained the rule of law. Arrests initially focused on military and security personnel. In the months since, tens of thousands of others, mainly teachers, have been caught in the crackdown.

Erdogan’s long arm abroad: no way to get passports, facing deportation to Turkey, no help!

A letter sent to journalist Lindsey Snell revealed and proved once again that Turkey’s constitutional dictator Erdogan is determined to exterminate members of the Hizmet. He has limited, if not wiped off freedoms, for them both in the Turkey and abroad, which includes freedom to travel.

Gülen: Despite differences in method peace process in Kurdish issue should be supported

Yet another show of support for Turkey’s ongoing settlement process — aiming to end the decades-old bloodshed in the country — has been voiced, this time from Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who said some people might oppose the government’s method of solving the settlement process but for the sake of peace the process should be […]

İstanbul hosts dialogue leaders to discuss tolerance in education

MAHIR ZEYNALOV “What we are doing here is for the better future of our people, to tackle global threats and institute global peace,” said Rostislav Rybakov, head of the Institute of Oriental Studies, during a conference held in İstanbul on Monday to discuss tolerance and dialogue in education. The Dialogue Eurasia Platform (DEP) together with […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Turkey warns Kazakhstan over Gulen-linked schools

Erdogan’s Faux Coup may have been Turkey’s Reichstag Fire

The message at the dialogue dinner: There’s no alternative to one Nigeria

Mother with infant jailed while trying to visit imprisoned husband

Flynn’s Turkish [and Erdogan] Connection

Ergenekon opinion lists subversive plans for coup d’état

A reasonable statement from Fethullah Gülen

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News