against the Government." That a court of law should have allowed itself to be used in this blatant miscarriage of justice was a denigration of the law itself and a disgraceful episode in Turkish legal history . It sentenced Bediuzzaman to two years' "penal servitude", which was reduced to twenty months due to his age. Ahmed Feyzi Kul, who had made the long defence, was sentenced to eighteen months, and twenty others of Bediuzzaman's students to six months each. Some of these had already been inside the prison for eleven months, others for less. Those who had served their terms were released, while others who had been tried not under arrest, were arrested and put inside.
Then began a long drawn-out legal wrangle that did not reach a final conclusion until 1956. On the Court's passing sentence, the case was immediately sent to the Appeal Court in Ankara, but as mentioned earlier, the Prosecutor delayed the sending of the documents, only sending them on the intervention of the three lawyers . In the prison also the injustices against Bediuzzaman continued, or were even increased, for it was at this time that the weather became so cold and he was forceably moved to another ward. Both he and his students wrote further defences and pieces to be sent also to the Appeal Court. The lawyers gave the defence in the Appeal Court, which gave its decision on 4 June ,1949: since Said Nursi had been acquitted on the same charges by Denizli Court, and this decision had been confirmed by the Appeal Court, it quashed the decision of Afyon Court.
Although Bediuzzaman and his students should have been released at this point, Afyon Court reassembled on the case being referred back to it. They were asked what they wanted. On their replying that they wanted the Appeal Court's decision to be applied, the Court withdrew for prolonged consideration. Finally, it had no choice but to agree. But then, on 31 August ,1949, the decision was taken to retry the case, and hearings began once again. In this way, with continual postponements and delays, in an entirely unlawful manner, Bediuzzaman was made to serve the full twenty months the