Another fact supporting the claim that the trial was an officially-backed conspiracy against Bediuzzaman and the Risale-i Nur movement was that he was denied all sorts of legal rights in the trial. In addition to being denied access to such important documents as the report, he was even frequently denied the right to speak in the Court itself. His being totally isolated for the first eleven months of his imprisonment, during the trial, was clearly both to prevent him receiving information and assisting with his students. Thus, he was also often not allowed anyone to assist him with the writing out of his defence. Of course, Bediuzzaman never used the Latin alphabet, so he was dependent on his students or others for the reading of all official documents, and also the writing of any document or letter that had to be presented to the Court or authorities.
As with his dress, he refused to compromise. Since the Ottoman script was now illegal and invalid, when his signature was necessary on official papers, they used either his finger-print or a rubber-stamp with his name on it in the new letters.
Nevertheless, Bediuzzaman and his students were not in any way intimidated by the wrongs and injustices they suffered. A gendarme who served both in Emirdag and Afyon Court, called Ibrahim Mengüverli, described how on one occasion Bediuzzaman rose to speak in Court, and continued for two hours. Then, when the Judge told him that was enough.. “Bediuzzaman grew exceedingly angry, traced a circle in the air with his hand and jabbed his forefinger at the Judge, saying:
“‘I have the right to speak for eight hours. I’ll speak for as long as I want.’”[42. Mengüverli, Ibrahim, in Son Sahitler, iii, 123.]
There were three lawyers who acted as defence lawyers for Bediuzzaman and his students at Afyon. One of these, Ahmet Hikmet Gönen, also a student of Bediuzzaman’s, has described the defence speeches of the Risale-i Nur Students. They all gave their own defences in the Court, in addition to writing petitions. Two were particularly noteworthy, Zübeyir Gündüzalp’s and Ahmet Feyzi Kul’s. The latter’s, which continued for a full eight and a half hours, earned him the name of ‘The Risale-i Nur Lawyer’ from Bediuzzaman.[43. Gönen, Ahmet Hikmet, in Son Sahitler, iii, 178-9.]
Bediuzzaman also insisted on his right to perform the prayers at the appropriate times when the Court was in session. Several witnesses have described such occasions in their accounts. One was the above lawyer. Another was Mustafa Acet from Emirdag. He described how during one hearing, the time for the prayers was passing, so presumably not having been allowed to leave the Court earlier for five minutes, Bediuzzaman said angrily to the Prosecutor:
“We’re here in order to protect the rights of the prayers. We are not guilty of anything else!” And he immediately got and walked out. The usher hurried out after him, and he performed the prayers in the Secretary’s Office.[44. Acet, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, i, 28.]
The trials aroused great interest country-wide, and numbers of people flocked to Afyon from all over.[45. Mengüverli, Ibrahim, in Son Sahitler, iii, 123.] One of Bediuzzaman’s students tells of one occasion when Bediuzzaman emerged from the Court, a great mass of people moved forward to kiss his hand… “then in turn they started to kiss it. At that point the Public Prosecutor came out, and unable to stomach such a situation, roared at the police and gendarmes: ‘Why are you permitting this?’ Bediuzzaman was exceedingly angry at this, and said in a loud voice:
“‘What’s this? What’s this? I’ll meet with my brothers if I want!’ And he grew so excited his turban fell off. We picked it up off the ground and put it back on his head. Scared out of his wits, the Prosecutor made off without looking behind him. But in order to provoke an incident, kicked somebody’s leg. This brother felt no pain. But we looked at his leg later, and it was all purple and bruised.”[46. Ezener, Mustafa, in Son Sahitler, iv, 180.]
At the same time Bediuzzaman was not content to allow the injustices of the trial to pass unnoticed. As in Denizli, he arranged through his students for copies of his defence speeches, and also those of his students and copies of his table of the ninety errors in the indictment and his answers, to departments of government in Ankara, in order to make known the reality of the case. Only here in Afyon, he endeavoured to organize it on a larger scale, sending copies also to Isparta – for his students there to duplicate, to be shown to the Public Prosecutor, and also to Denizli and Istanbul. These were also made into book form and distributed. He also instructed them to send copies to the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Ankara.[47. Sualar, 409; 412.]
This operation had to be organized in secrecy and under the most difficult conditions of the prison. The copies which Bediuzzaman wanted produced in the new letters had to be typed out on type-writers, which unlike Denizli, they were not permitted. Their lawyer, Ahmad Bey, assisted them with this – Bediuzzaman stressing in his letters the need for accuracy. A soldier stationed in Afyon called Nihad Bozkurt, who used to visit a friend in the prison twice a week, also typed out the defence speeches for them.[48. Bozkurt, Nihad, in Son Sahitler, iv, 248-9.]
At one point even, the Court had reproduced parts of the indictment “which they imagined were against” Bediuzzaman and his students. In response to this propaganda campaign, which was undoubtedly an abuse of the Court’s powers and was aimed at turning public opinion against Bediuzzaman, Bediuzzaman had duplicated copies of his table of the errors in the indictment, which were little more than slander, in order to have them distributed, and also further copies of their defences so as to inform people of the truth of the matter.[49. Sualar, 453.]