Presenting their opinion on the case at the first hearing in the trial of Sezgin Kartal, the prosecutor has demanded that the journalist be sentenced for the impugned crime

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL

The first hearing in the trial of journalist Sezgin Kartal on charges of “defamation” was held at the İstanbul 24th Criminal Court of First Instance on 20 October 2022.

Sezgin Kartal and plaintiff Fuat Uğur’s lawyer Hasan Çalıoğlu attended hearing, which P24 monitored.

Kartal stated that he could not remember the social media post that led to the charges and said the following: “I did not come across this post when I searched the history of my Twitter account. The person referenced in the post included in the indictment was not specified. I do not accept the charges.” Kartal then demanded his acquittal.

Plaintiff Fuat Uğur’s lawyer Hasan Çalıoğlu described Kartal’s defense statement as a bid to elude the accusation. “The legal elements of the crime have been established. We demand that the defendant be sentenced,” Çalıkoğlu said. He requested to join the trial as co-plaintiff.

Presenting their opinion as to the accusations, the prosecutor stated that it was evident that Kartal had openly committed the charge of “defamation” and requested sentence for Kartal.

Kartal requested additional time from the court to prepare counterstatement against the prosecutor’s opinion. Attorney Çalıoğlu stated that they agreed with the opinion and demanded that Kartal be sentenced.

The court accepted the requests for additional time and for Fuat Uğur’s attorney to act as a co-plaintiff and adjourned the trial until 29 November 2022.

History of the case

Following the attack on the provincial office of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in İzmir and the murder of Deniz Poyraz, columnist Fuat Uğur for the daily Türkiye wrote “This assassination was carried out by the global Gladio apparatuses of FETO and the HDP” on June 19 2021. Kartal then criticized Uğur’s words in a social media post, after which Uğur filed a criminal complaint against.