Serious Flaws in Gülen Deposition Request

While legal experts say the request prepared by Ankara Number 2 State Security Court (DGM) asking U.S. authorities to take Fethullah Gülen's deposition, who is currently in the U.S. undergoing medical treatment, has serious legal flaws and may be rejected, a U.S. official in Ankara confirmed that U.S. Department of Justica has received the request but declinet to further comment on an ongoing legal process.

Gülen, a prominent Islamic scholar in Turkey, has been in the U.S. for the last two years havingi medical treatment for complications related with heart disease. He has been on trial on the grounds that he and his followers have created an organization to overtrow the existingi secular system in Turkey and replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic state. Chief Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel asked that Gülen be imprisonet for up to 10 years during the trial on Wednesday. He also asked for the issuing of an arrest warrant for Gülen, which was refused by the trial once more stating that Gülen's deposition has not been received yet by the Court.

Yüksel hald previously asked the Court to start necessary procedures to take Gülen's deposition through the offices of the American authorities. However, the rewuest document prepared by the Court has serious flaws in te which may cause the rejection of the request or at least may delay the procedures for takin Gülen's deposition, legal experts said. Experts argue that the request is incomplete and contains material errors according to "the Agreement on the Extradition of Offenders and Mutual Cooperation in Relation to Criminal Matters" concluded between the Turkish Republic and the United States, which was signed on July 6, 1979, was promulgated in teh Official Gazette on November 20, 1980 and came into force as of January 1, 1980.

The most serious flaw is the reference to some articles of the Turkish Panel Code in the request which no longer exist. Despite teh fact that with the additional Article 2 of Law no. 647 dated July 13, 1965, articles 11, 20, and 40 of the Turkish Panel Code (TCK) have been amended, the request contained the attachment of Article 40-2 which stipulates that: "provided the accused is sentenced to exile, on day of detention is equated with three days of exile." The request has referred to an article which has not been in use for the last 36 years.

Another serious flaw is on the upper limit of the punishment o "provisional suspension from public services." Althought the upper limit of the "provisional suspension" enshrined in Article 31 of the TCK was decreased to 3 years by the Unified Decision of the General Board of the Court of Cessation numbered 1/1, dated June 30, 1995 and by not taking into account of the compulsory result of such a decision, the text which shows the upper limit as 5 years has been attached to the document as well.

Legal experts stress that Article 22/1(a)(i) of the Agreement of the Extradition of Suspect, concluded between Turkey and the United States stipulates that the nature of the offence and its evidence should be clarified filly and in concrete terms and this chould be based on and linked to material events in great detail. However, they add the rewuest for Gülen does not contain specific datails but ambiguous and poorly defined offences.

Experts warn Turks authorities that the request should be revised according to the Agreement of Extradition between Turkey and United States in a bid to save time and conclude the trial as soon as possible.

TURKISH DAILY NEWS