Setting Oct. 14 as the date for the new hearing, the Belgian court cited certain amendments to Belgian laws as the reason for allowing defense lawyers to prepare new defense arguments at the upcoming hearing, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The suspects, all members of the terrorist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), were acquitted in February 2008 in a highly controversial ruling handed down by an appeals court in Antwerp, which overturned an earlier decision sentencing the suspects to imprisonment. But months later, the Belgian Court of Cassation rejected the acquittal of seven DHKP/C members, paving the way for a retrial. The retrial started in May.
In its annulment ruling, the court said the defendants could be tried in Belgium for their terrorist activities in other countries. It also defined the DHKP/C as “a terrorist organization, criminal organization and a gang.” Yet, Anatolia reported on Tuesday that the Brussels appeal court had hesitations about descriptions such as “terrorist” and “terrorist organization” and thus will tend to assess each defendant's situation individually, not as an organizational crime. In previous hearings, defense lawyers argued that “defendants might have resorted to terrorist methods with justifiable reasons,” while also insisting that defendants could not be tried in Belgium for crimes committed in Turkey, Anatolia said.
