Trial Postponed
September 6, 2007
A court in Antalya rejected on Thursday the pleas of Marco W. and his team of lawyers for a release. The German youth has been held in a Turkish prison since his arrest in April.
The trial, which officially resumed on Thursday, has been postponed once again and will resume on Sept. 28, one of the lawyers Michael Nagel said from Antalya, German news agency DPA reported.
Nagel said he considers the decision "illegal."
Marco W. has repudiated charges that he sexually abused a 13-year-old British girl while vacationing in the Turkish resort town of Side. A medical examination revealed that the girl, who'd allegedly said she was 15, was not raped, nor did the pair have sexual intercourse.
The case set off a mini-diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Germany with Turkish officials outraged at the German media's portrayal of the conditions at Marco W.'s prison and also at German politicians for pressuring the Turkish government for the boy's release.