10 months after the failed 15 July coup attempt that traumatized the country, the suspected ringleaders of the armed conspiracy have, finally, gone on trial.
Eager to overcome the detrimental effects of the coup attempt and the counter measures that followed, the country should have breathed a great sigh of relief.
After all, what can be more effective than ensuring due process if you want to start returning to normality?
More than 220 suspects, among them high-ranking military officers, have been brought before a court near Ankara. The prosecutors say they have damning evidence; as many suspects are said to be caught in the act of bloody uprising.
Yet, nobody seems confident that the notion of Rule of Law is about to prevail. Public confidence in criminal justice seems to be at all-time low.
It has been a tough, frustrating week for some who believe that the defendants are making a mockery of the judicial system.
Everyone on trial is accused of being a member of the Gulenist network, denoted as “FETÖ/PDY” (Fethullah Terror Organization/Parallel State Structures). So far, every one of the accused denied involvement and responsibility.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was furious. Addressing village and neighbourhood heads in his Presidential Palace on Thursday, Mr. Erdogan has asked “who were they playing this game for?”.
“Even though they were caught red-handed, what are they [the suspects] now saying in court? The FETÖ members who have been saying ‘we have not seen or heard anything or spoken’ and who have their head in the sand will not be able to escape the painful end that is waiting for them ”, Mr. Erdogan said.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, who has described the Gulenists as “the most despicable terror organization he has ever seen, complained that they were not “man enough to own up to their failed coup”.
Columnist Ozlem Albayrak, writing in the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said that the Gulenists were lying at courts in a hopeless, shameless and vile manner, adding “ When the organizations of such people fall into danger, there is no limit to what they can do and no threshold to how low they can fall”.
They may well be right, of course. There were more than enough examples of fabrication and incrimination by the Gulenists in the past, their blatant lies and systematic infiltration of every key institution in Turkey.
Unlike the former allies and comrades of the Gulenists in government, there were independent journalists, academics and politicians that had questioned, investigated and warned about those activities. If they were not silenced then, they are now.
So, it is now the turn of the government and their supporters to protest about the mockery of the justice system and people’s intelligence being insulted.
While doing that, they are undermining rule of law even further. As well as having full control over judges and prosecutors, their public comments about ongoing cases risk prejudicing a fair trial.
They should not need reminding that every individual has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is required to prove their innocence. The onus is on prosecutors to show beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person is guilty.
If they have not collected enough evidence to substantiate a successful case after nearly a year of investigating under a strict emergency law, without having to appeal to the accused to man up, the damage to Turkey’s judicial system may be graver than we had feared.
This post is also available in: Turkish
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