condition they could never have been published, having been hidden under piles of firewood several years previously, as was verified by the group of police; and since although the Kastamonu Police Chief and judiciary gave their certain word to return those harmless books of mine that had been hidden, I was moved on without receiving those trusts, since on the second day the order suddenly came from Isparta for my arrest; and since the courts of Denizli and Ankara acquitted us and returned all my treatises; certainly and without doubt, as a consequence of the above six facts, it is demanded by their positions that Afyon Court and its public prosecutor take into consideration this very important right of mine, as did Denizli Court and public prosecutor. I am hopeful that the public prosecutor, who defends the rights of the people, will also defend my personal rights, which due to my relation with the Risale-i Nur are like important public rights; and I await this from him.

The New Said has for twenty-two years withdrawn from social life, and does not know the present laws and how defences should be carried out, and is presenting to this new court the irrefutable hundred-page defence he presented to Eskishehir and Denizli Courts; he paid the penalty for his errors up to that time, and after that in Kastamonu and Emirdag lived in a sort of solitary confinement under constant surveillance; he is therefore now falling silent and leaving it to the Old Said to speak. And the Old Said says this:

Since the New Said has turned away from the world, he does not speak with ‘the worldly’ unless absolutely compelled to defend himself, and considers it unnecessary. But numerous innocent artisans and tradesmen being arrested in this affair due to some slight connection with me aroused my extreme sympathy, since at this busy time they have been unable to earn livelihoods for their families. It upset me deeply. I swear that if it had been possible, I would have taken all their difficulties upon myself. Anyway, if there is any fault, it is mine. They are innocent. Because of this grievous situation, I say, despite the New Said’s silence: since the wretched New Said answered the hundreds of unnecessary questions of the public prosecutors of Isparta, Denizli, and Afyon, it is my right to ask of the present Ministry of Justice, with the intention of defending my rights, the three questions I asked the Ministry of Home Affairs, and chiefly Kaya Shükrü, thirteen years ago.