THE LAW HAS BEEN SLAUGHTERED AGAIN, IDEA OF KHILAFAH IS CONSIDERED AS A CRIME

On Friday, 02/04/2021, the law has been slaughtered again with the trial which was initiated because of the Khilafah (Caliphate) Conference in Turkey in 2017 but did not take place due to the administration’s obscuring.

The 30th High Criminal Court of ISTANBUL has sentenced the four speakers with 31 years and 3 months of imprisonment.

The conference entitled with “Why is the World in Need for Khilafah?” was planned to be held by Koklu Degisim Journal was obscured without any binding reason, and judgement process was started regarding the conference speakers.

At the decision hearing held on Friday 02/04/2021 of the trial conducted by the Istanbul 30 Heavy Criminal Court, conference speaker Mahmut KAR was sentenced to 12.5 years, Abdullah Imamoglu, Musa Bayoglu and Osman Yildiz for 6 years and 3 months separately. In addition, a decision was made to ban all persons from going abroad. The decision was made by a judge from the court panel with an opposition comment, that is, a majority of votes.

Following the verdict, Mahmoud Kar, Abdullah Imamoglu, Musa Bayoglu and Osman Yildiz shared a video message.

The prosecution could not reveal any concrete crimes related to the defendants

At the sentencing hearing, Mahmut Kar, theologian writer Abdullah Imamoglu, Musa Bayoglu and Osman Yildiz made defenses that refuted the claims made in the prosecution's opinion one by one. They clearly expressed that Hizb ut Tahrir rejects force and violence, and they did not state any word encouraging terrorism, they also underlined that one cannot demand a severe punishment due to a conference that has not been held and all these heavy punishments are not inconvenient to the law and the conscience. Again, they declared that the Anti-Terrorism Law in force is clear, that their acts and activities do not involve violence and terrorism cannot be considered as crimes, so the claims of the prosecution lack substance.

Lawyers for the accused Kaya Kartal, Ahmet Sait Öner and Mehmet Alagöz gave a detailed long defense to the court panel. “A terrorist organization is a type of politically motivated organization that acts by pressure, intimidation, terrorization, suppression or threat using force and violence. Hizb ut Tahrir is not an organization in this context.” The simplest indication of the contradiction and inconsistency experienced by the state and the judiciary regarding Hizb ut Tahrir is that people close to the organization were punished as members of an "illegal organization" and then an "unarmed terrorist organization" and, most recently, an "armed terrorist organization". During the entire trial period, Hizb ut Tahrir's working methodology is the same. Although Hizb ut Tahrir's method of operation was the same and the laws changed during this time, the judiciary always found a way and the punishments continued and the penalty amounts were increased."

The President of the Court Read the Sentence, saying, “This File Is Indisputable!”

After the 30th High Criminal Court panel took the defences and the break and explained the decision: “we talked, assessed that Hizb ut Tahrir was a terrorist organization." The head of the court, who did not provide a concrete justification that Hizb ut Tahrir is a terrorist organization, announced the decision, saying: “This file is indisputable.”

The Law Has Been Slaughtered Once Again!

In this trial, which began in 2017 and still continues, the Penalty Department No. 9 of the Supreme Court, is once again openly criticized by the AYM, emphasized the illegal case law decisions it made about Hizb ut Tahrir in 2004 and 2008 and the prosecution, which bases these case laws on consideration, was not asked for a concrete justification. The prosecution again, did not take into account the opposition comment of Mustafa Kurtulan's who is a member of the Supreme Court. While the court based the decisions of the Supreme Court against the rules and laws, it did not take into account a total of 8 separate violation decisions made by the Supreme Court in favour of Hizb ut Tahrir, which criticized these illegal case law decisions.

That one of the members of the court submitted its opposition and the decision was taken with majority shows clearly the unlawful judgements moreover the controversy and arbitrariness against Hizb ut Tahrir. Yet, in other files of Heavy Criminal Courts of Istanbul, Ankara and Sanliurfa, it is known that the acquitment decisions were given by declaring that Hizb ut Tahrir is not a terrorist organization but a civilian structure.

#YargıZulmüneDurDe

Delegate of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Turkey