Turkish novelist acquitted in rights trial

ISTANBUL, Sep 21 (Reuters) A Turkish judge acquitted a prominent author today in a case seen as a fresh test of freedom of expression in the European Union candidate nation.

Chief judge Irfan Adil Uncu cleared Elif Shafak, who is in hospital after giving birth last weekend, because of lack of evidence shortly after the controversial trial began in Istanbul.

Shafak had faced charges over comments made by her fictional characters on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War One.

Outside the Istanbul court house riot police with shields tried to contain scuffles between dozens of protesters.

Shafak is one of a number of writers, journalists and academics pursued by nationalist prosecutors under article 301 of Turkey's penal code for allegedly insulting 'Turkishness'.

The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, has repeatedly urged Ankara to abolish article 301, saying it violates the principle of freedom of expression and thought.

The government is split over whether to scrap the article, fearing a nationalist backlash ahead of elections next year.

The hearing got off to a bad start when the plaintiffs demanded the judge remove foreigners from the court room.

''The judge was under pressure and the verdict was already clear so we withdrew from the case because of that,'' said Ahmet Ulger, one of the plaintiff lawyers.

In Shafak's best-selling novel ''The Bastard of Istanbul'', fictional Armenian characters make disparaging remarks about Turks and refer to a genocide of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Turkey denies claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide. It says Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed in a partisan conflict at that time.

The Muslim country's most famous novelist Orhan Pamuk went on trial earlier this year also for insulting ''Turkishness''. His case was later dropped on a technicality.

Reuters SP GC1634