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Amina Oglo
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By
Saad Abdul Majeed, IOL Turkey Correspondent
ISTANBUL,
September 14 (IslamOnline) - Turkish state security court is searching
for the Muslim writer Amina Oglo in the Turkish city of Izmir to arrest
her to serve an 18-month prison sentence.
This
is despite the fact that the article used to sentence her has been
canceled and that Istanbul prosecution has halted the sentence. The
sentence came after a television interview in which Oglo accused Turkish
authorities of discriminating against women wearing the hijab (Islamic
veil).
According
to the Wednesday, September 11 issue of the Turkish newspaper Waqt, the
court in Izmir sent a request to the prosecution of Al Fateh region in
Istanbul, where the writer lives, to arrest her in a bid to carry out
the cancelled article of the Turkish Penalty Law number 2/312. Under
that article the writer was sentenced in the year 2000, after she spoke
to Class T local channel, accusing the government of discriminating
against her because she wears the hijab.
Speaking
to the newspaper, Farooq Owaisal, the writer’s lawyer, said that the
prosecution in Al Fateh in Istanbul has already stopped the sentence
twice, after the Ministry of Justice assured them that the writer must
be discharged till a new verdict complying with the altered article is
passed.
He
added that the lawsuit file had to be sent by the Izmir court to the
cassation court in Ankara to stop the sentence but the state court
refused.
Farouk
added that the Izmir state security court had to send the lawsuit file
to cassation court in Ankara to stop the penalty , but that the
Izmir court refused to carry out the recommendation of the Ministry of
Justice and did not send the file to the cassation court.
The
lawyer said that there are illegal attempts being carried out by the
police and the state security prosecution to arrest the writer and that
he has presented a request to the prosecution in Al Fateh to halt the
sentence.
The
lawyer and the Turkish human rights organization AHD in Istanbul say
that there is no legal basis for the prosecution and the courts’
insistence on carrying out the ruling.
Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Justice and Development party in Turkey,
told CNN’s Turkish news station on Thursday, September 12 that when he
heads the Turkish government he will divert his attention to applying
the changed articles as part of the Turkish pledges to the E.U. to
effectively deal with human rights issues.
Oglo
has a number of books and articles and takes part in many public
lectures and dialogues as well as television debates to defend the
Islamic image of Turkey.
