Lawyer Hanifi Barış, an outspoken Aberdeen University academic, who has been jailed in Turkey since July 4, 2018, for posting critical comments on social media about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was released by a Turkish court on probation on Tuesday.
Hanifi Barış, who is also among the Academics for Peace, who signed the declaration entitled “We will not be a party to this crime”, had his first hearing on Tuesday.
According to a report by Bianet, Barış presented his statement of defense at the court and stated that “I do not think that my social media posts constitute a crime. I am in a dreadful shock. The highest priority of academics is to share the information that they obtain and social media is one of its tools.”
His lawyer Ahmet Baran has demanded the court to release and acquit Barış and the court has ruled to release Hanifi Barış with an international travel ban. The trial was postponed to December 11, 2018.
Lawyer Hanifi Barış, who graduated from Aberdeen University’s Centre of Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law with a Ph.D. last year, was arrested by police in İstanbul in July for “posting items with criminal content on Facebook and Twitter accounts,” according to Scotland-based The Press and Journal.
Barış, who moved to Turkey after leaving Aberdeen last year to be with his wife and family, was put behind bars for speaking out against President Erdoğan. The Aberdeen University graduate, who previously practiced law as an attorney for several years in Turkey and specializes in political theory, uploaded a number of articles denouncing President Erdoğan towards the end of June, when the Turkish leader secured victory in a national election.
Barış was due to return to Scotland in September as a keynote speaker at a convention of Aberdeen University’s Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law.
His academic colleagues at Aberdeen University had launched a petition calling for his immediate release. “Hanifi is a gifted, well-respected and dearly loved scholar and friend. We demand justice for our esteemed colleague,” the petition said.
The post Turkish court releases Erdoğan’s critic Hanifi Barış, an academic from Scottish university appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/turkish-court-releases-erdogans-critic-hanifi-baris-an-academic-from-scottish-university/
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