Court Dismissed Request for Defence in Kurdish

On the second day of the "KCK trial", the Diyarbakır 6^th High Criminal Court decided to dismiss the defendants' request to present their defence in Kurdish.

In the first hearing of the case on Monday (18 October), the 151 defendants had made the request to deliver their defence speeches in their mother tongue.

The decision on the request was left to today (19 October). In this morning's session, the prosecutor demanded to reject the request and the court board announced its decision accordingly.

The indictment of the trial comprises more than 7,500 pages. In yesterday's hearing, the defence lawyers stated that it would be a violation of the right to defence to read out the lengthy indictment page by page. The prosecutor demanded to read out a summary of the indictment. In today's morning session, the court board agreed and ruled to have a summary read out at court. (TK/VK)