The prosecutor, who announced his opinion on the merits in the previous hearings, requested that the defendants Turan and Aras be sentenced to imprisonment from 1 year and 10 months to 5 years and 6 months for the crimes of ‘publicly disseminating misleading information‘ and ‘attempting to influence a fair trial’.
ARAS: IT IS MEANINGLESS TO TRY TO PRODUCE A CRIME
Aras, who defended against the opinion on the merits, said: “When my statements on the merits of the trial are examined, it can be understood that there is no accusation. My 20-minute speech was taken out of context. When the speech is examined in its entirety, it is understood that it is aimed at economic development and is completely well-intentioned. My speech touches on current issues without using names. It is meaningless to try to create a crime here. We saw that the prosecutor’s opinion on the merits was evaluated in a way that was contrary to the universal principles of law. The publication of the same speech on the TÜSİAD website is a separate matter.” “As a person who has never been in court in my 72 years of life, I do not accept that speech made for the development of the country is portrayed as a crime,” he said.
DECISION FROM THE COURT
In the court decision, the defendants Orhan Turan and Mehmet Ömer Arif Aras were sentenced to 1 year, 3 months and 18 days in prison for the crime of ‘publicly disseminating misleading information’, while they were acquitted of the crime of ‘attempting to influence a fair trial’.
The court postponed the announcement of the sentence given.
