Turkish court decides to continue detainment for imprisoned suspect of 21 years

An Istanbul court has ruled for the continuation of a 21-year-long detainment of a 42-year-old man, who has been standing trial for an anti-terror case since 1994. 

Istanbul's 4th Court of Series Crimes ruled in the July 3 hearing of the case concerning the retrial of ?lhan Sami Çomak, who allegedly engaged in acts of terror, that his detainment should continue. The court ruled that because the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) previous decision for his retrial was given for an earlier ruling of a different court, namely the State Security Court (DGM), and because the case's evidence had not changed since the last hearing, his detainment would be upheld.

Additionally, the court decided that there was no need for Çomak to come to the hearings and that he would join the court at the next hearing via SEGB?S, a video testifying system. 

Çomak was detained in 1994 at the age of 21, while he was a student at the geography department of Istanbul University by anti-terror police. Under heavy torture, Çomak was forced to sign police summaries of his alleged crimes. After 16 days of detainment, Çomak told the judge during his first court hearing he had signed these documents while undergoing torture. He was arrested by police for allegedly engaging in acts of "separatism" and "setting a forest on fire in the name of the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK]," regarded as a terror organization by Turkey and against which army forces were engaged in a deadly struggle with at the time. 

First verdict in 2000

Çomak's first verdict was handed down by the Istanbul DGM in 2000, which ruled for Çomak's execution on the grounds that he had committed acts with the aim of "separating a part of a country from the country's administration." The...