First "Reasonable Suspect" Aytekin Gezici was on Trial

(Left to right) Gokce Firat, Aytekin Gezici and his lawyer

Journalist Aytekin Gezici, the first suspect taken into police custody with the famous “reasonable doubt” was on trial, yesterday. The hearing was held on 29th Penal Court of First Instance of Ankara. 

Gokce Firat, the head-columnist of Turkish Left, was one of those who attended the hearing to support Gezici.

The hearing witnessed certain memorable moments. For example, when defending himself about his expression “Spit at Arinc’s face”, Gezici’s statement of “It’s a tradition in Anatolian villages to spit at mouths of newborn babies” caused some laughter in the hearing room. 

When asked about what he meant with calling Davutoglu “junior brother-in-law”, Gezici defended himself by “Because he reminds me of ‘Tosun Pasha’ film and I find him sympathetic” and caused even more laughter. (“Tosun Pasha” is a famous Turkish comedy film about a counterfeit Ottoman general who forgets he’s fake and starts to act like the General) 

When asked about his statement about Erdogan, Gezici stated that:

“I didn’t refer to Erdogan when I said ‘give the man back what you stole’. Why does Erdogan take it so personally?”

Gezici’s lawyer claimed that his client cannot be convicted for “Insulting the President” because Erdogan doesn’t behave like a President. The Attorney also stated that his client was on target to suppress the public opposition. 

It was interesting to see that while Erdogan’s lawyer was heartily defending Davutoglu, the attorney of the Prime Minister preferred to sit back and watch the hearing silently!

The date of the next hearing was announced to be the 17th of September with the interim decision for the request of a written substantive defense statement.