Turkey: acquittal for academics accused of "terrorist propaganda"

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Front of the Istanbul Court House where the academics were judged and paid. Ozan KOSE / AFP

An Istanbul court on Friday acquitted a Turkish academic accused, like hundreds of his colleagues, of "terrorist propaganda" for having signed a petition in 2016. This is the first judicial victory of the signatories since a favorable judgment of the Court Constitutional Court in July. In the coming months, dozens of other academics should in turn be acquitted.

From our correspondent in Istanbul , Anne Andlauer

It was a logical, expected decision. Yet as soon as they learned it, hundreds of Turkish academics breathed a sigh of relief. Like more than a thousand of her colleagues, then joined by a thousand other teachers and intellectuals, political science researcher Özlem Şendeniz signed a petition in early 2016 calling for the end of operations of security forces in the south-east of Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had shouted at " treason " and called on the courts to punish the signatories. To date, nearly 650 teachers have been prosecuted. Of these, 204 have already been sentenced to prison for "terrorist propaganda".

But in July, the Constitutional Court found that these sentences amounted to a violation of academic freedom of expression. In current trials, this guarantees in principle an acquittal of the signatories, and for those who have already been convicted, a new trial leading to an acquittal. In other words, the end of a trial for dozens of Turkish teachers, and a new hope to one day find a post in a university, since most of them were sacked because of this signature.

Academic Özlem Şendeniz has been acquitted after the Constitutional Court ruled in July that the sentences violate the academics' freedom of expression.http: //t.co/WGZKSKhIte pic.twitter.com/sWjdfj8tcp