Trial of Taksim Square Twitter activists begins

Turkish riot police clash with members of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) during a demonstration yesterday against the government at Taksim Square in Istanbul. The union members gathered to protest the government's decision to ban celebrating May Day at Taksim Square.

DPA/Istanbul

The trial of 29 activists, accused of inciting the public to break the law when they tweeted about the anti-government protests in Turkey last year, began yesterday.

Rights activists say that the defendants, mostly youths, shared information on social media platforms about the mass demonstrations that started in Istanbul's Gezi Park and Taksim Square and then spread nationwide, but none of them broke the law.

"These types of tweets must be protected by the constitution and actually they are protected," Duygucan Yazici, one of the defence lawyers, told DPA. "These are political charges."

The government has been trying to curb the use of social media websites, which have been used to organise protests and also to post recordings pointing to corruption by government officials.

Twitter, which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan dubbed a "menace" to society, was blocked for two weeks, prompting a Constitutional Court order that restored access this month.

YouTube has been banned since late March with an appeal demanding the block be lifted pending before the courts.

Erdogan is listed formally as a "victim" in the activists' trial, which is being held in the western city Izmir.

Some of the defendants are charged with "insulting the prime minister".

The judge in the case also ruled that Erdogan does not need to appear before the court, sparking concern from Amnesty International that the trial is politically motivated.

"There is nothing in the case file that says the prime minister made a complaint in the case," says Andrew Gardner, Amnesty's trial observer in Izmir.

How he got listed as a victim remains unclear.

"This is still a bit of a mystery that the defence lawyers tried to unravel without much success," according to Gardner.

Amnesty charges that the case is "baseless" and that the prosecution of the activists has raised concerns about freedom of expression in Turkey.

"Nothing they said promoted violence or suggested participation in violence. It was all legitimate sharing of information and opinion. This is the fundamental right to freedom of expression," Gardner argued.

"There is a history in Turkey of unfair trials on freedom of expression issues and when it comes to criticism of the authorities," he warned.

Some of the defendants' tweets shared information about where protests were taking place, reported on incidents of police violence and called for medical aid.

The protests were crushed by the police after several weeks.

The trial will resume on July 14.

Twitter officials were in Turkey last week, meeting with government agencies, in an effort to defuse tensions.

The US-based company said it would not open a local office, which had been a key government demand, and will not share users' data with the authorities without appropriate court orders.

However, the two main Twitter accounts used by activists to share the leaked audio recordings were blocked in Turkey over the weekend, though access from other countries is unaffected.

"Twitter has not provided and will not provide user information to Turkish authorities without valid legal process," the company's public policy team tweeted.

The events take place amid a tug-of-war between the judiciary and the government, as concerns grow about the independence of judges and prosecutors.

Key sections of a law passed by parliament in February which granted the justice minister greater powers over an important judiciary oversight body was struck down by the Constitutional Court.

Erdogan was sharply critical of the judges in the case and also lashed out at the court over the ruling which reopened Twitter.

"There is highly politicised environment. The government, at the highest level, is making attacks on the judiciary and is exerting ever greater pressure on the judiciary," said Amnesty's Gardner.

Turkey is due to hold presidential elections in August.

Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept local elections in March, winning about 45% of the vote.

While he has not yet formally declared his candidacy, all indications are that Erdogan, who is barred by AKP rules from being premier for a fourth term, will seek the presidency.