“This trial - Farhard recalled – is being conducted without a lawyer defending Mgr. Padovese. Indeed, as the Catholic Church is not legally recognised here, she cannot appoint a lawyer; the same applies to the Capuchin Order, to which Mgr. Padovese belonged. If we had had our lawyer in the courtroom, he could have spoken, he could have raised objections to try to refute the arguments supporting Altun. But we can just watch the trial as spectators, seated among the public present at the hearings. We can only trust in the judge’s ability to deliver a just verdict”. The first hearing in the trial was held on 5 October 2011; it lasted 15 minutes and was adjourned to 30 November. In the second hearing, only 4 minutes long, the defendant’s lawyer had asked that his client be moved to a hospital in Adana because of illness, but the judge turned down the request. The third hearing, on 22 February, during which several witnesses were called to give evidence, ended after almost 4 hours. The fourth hearing was on 18 April while the fifth hearing, on 6 June, ended just after 7 minutes.

05/07/2012 -