Prosecutors called for Mater to be jailed for up to 12 years for 'insulting and belittling' the military, arguing that the book lacked 'objectivity' and embodied a 'western tradition going back to Ottoman times' of slandering the Turks. The renewed call for a heavy jail sentence came after the prosecutors rejected an independent report commissioned by the court to assess whether the book broke Article 159 of the Turkish penal code on representing the military. Expert Professor Koksal Bayraktar found in favour of Mater in his report, submitted at a hearing on July 7, the sixth since June 1999. But the prosecutor rejected his finding. Tens of thousands of civilians have died and more than a million people have been displaced.
Mater is a highly regarded media rights campaigner as well as a journalist.
Her work with the European Parliament and as Turkish representative of Reporters sans Frontiers has often drawn fire. As a freelance correspondent for Inter Press Service her accounts of Turkish rights abuses are widely read internationally. As a result her plight has been highlighted by several of Turkey's political and military allies, including U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright. The book is being translated into Greek and German and other international editions are in hand. Mater is also playing a leading role in a major European Union funded media rights project due to begin this year after three years preparation.