The Court of Appeals 4th Criminal Office quashed the verdict regarding an egg attack on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2006. Nine defendants were each sentenced to about one year in prison by a local court. The Court of Appeals decreed that throwing objects, eggs in the case of the defendants, was to be seen in the scope of an intentional crime.

This decision is regarded as a precedent on egg attacks, a form of protest that has been used increasingly in the near past.

Court of Appeals: Insult given

Nine members of the Community Centres organization ('Halkevleri') protested PM Erdoğan in 2006 by throwing eggs at him. A local court tried them under allegations of "Insulting the Prime Minister on the grounds of his duty".

Two of the defendants were sentenced to imprisonment of one year, two months and 15 days each; seven defendants received prison sentences of eleven months and 20 days each. All sentences were overturned by the Court of Appeals.

The subordinate court found the sentences too low. The reasoned decision put forward that an offence according to Article 115 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK) on 'illegally restricting the use of freedom of thought and opinion' was constituted.

"The crime of 'insult on the grounds of a person's duty' was constituted in this case. The offence of insult is defined by Article 125 [of the Turkish Criminal Law] as 'undermining a person's honour, dignity or respectability or attacking a person's honour, dignity or respectability'", the decision read.

Not only insult

The Court of Appeals decreed that the defendants not only committed the offence of insult.

"If more than one offence was committed in a single action, preference is to be given to special crime over the general crime. If all offences are of a general kind, the verdict has to be given according to the offence with the highest punishment as foreseen by Article 44 of the Criminal Law". This decision constituted a precedent for cases to be opened related to throwing eggs as a means of protest. (EÖ/VK)

Source: Habertürk newspaper.