Academics for Peace

Legal prosecution[edit]

The Turkish Government ordered the detention and arrest of dozens of signatories of the second petition and accused them of propaganda for a terrorist organization. Against all of the over 1000 signatories investigations were opened.^[8] Over 600 signatories were charged, mostly under Article No. 7.2 of the Anti-Terror Law or Article 301 of the penal code of the Turkish Republic.^[12] In most trials which ended in a verdict, the defendants were found guilty of the offences and sentenced them to prison sentences between 15 months and 3 years.^[13] The majority of the sentences were suspended but against 36 academics not. 29 verdicts were not suspended as the prison term in question was above 2 years and against the others it was not suspended as the defendants did want a suspension of the verdict.^[13] In July 2019, the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that the rights of expression of the signatories of the petition were violated^[14] and in September 2019 a Turkish court for the first time acquitted one of the Academics for Peace.^[15] In the following months several trials ended with an acquittal. 171 academics for peace were found innocent by 17 separate courts as of September 2019.^[16] As of 30 October 2020, 204 academics were sentenced to a prison term higher than one year. While most verdicts were appealable, thirty-six academics are in prison, either because their verdict amounts to over two years or the academics did not accept the deferral of the verdict.^[17]