Author:
Publication: Scotsman.com
Date: December 20, 2005
URL: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2440692005
A lawyer defending al Qaida-linked suspects
standing trial for the 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that
jihad, or holy war, was an obligation for Muslims and his clients should not
be prosecuted.
"If you punish them for this, tomorrow,
will you punish them for fasting or for praying?" Osman Karahan -- a
lawyer representing 14 of the 72 suspects -- asked during a nearly four-hour
speech in which he read religious texts from an encyclopedia of Islam.
The November 2003 blasts targeted two synagogues,
the British Consulate and the local headquarters of the London-based HSBC
bank, killing 58 people.
The Arabic word jihad can mean holy war among
extremists in addition to its definition as the Islamic concept of the struggle
to do good.
Karahan spoke for three hours at the court
in Istanbul.
"If non-Muslims go into Muslim lands,
it is every Muslim's obligation to fight them," Karahan said.
A panel of three judges for the fiercely secular
Turkish Republic listened to Karahan patiently, without speaking, as the defence
lawyer read from four thick file folders.
Twenty-nine of the suspects were brought to
the courthouse for the hearing, handcuffed and escorted by paramilitary police.
They sat in the middle of the courtroom, surrounded by police.
More than a dozen other lawyers were also
present but only Karahan spoke in the morning session.
Later in the day, several defendants acknowledged
receiving training at foreign camps for Islamic militants or making plans
to carry out acts of extremist violence, but all but one denied a link to
the Istanbul bombings or to al Qaida.
