Eugene Schoulgin, a seventy-six-year-old Norwegian novelist and the vice-president of PEN International, has observed the trials of journalists, human-rights activists, and writers in Turkey over the last twenty-five yeand, and said that his meetings with government officials and civil-society groups during his most recent trip, in February, left him bereft.
Diplomats and rights campaigners who have observed the trial expressed incredulity at the verdict.
He had observed the trial's unfolding, a rail-thin retired bricklayer often burying his head in his hands.
But Mohamed Lotfy, executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, who has observed the trial for Amnesty, said the verdict sent a frightening message to all opposition figures in Egypt.
None of the sessions were audio- or video-taped, which was unusual, said defense consultant Hollida Wakefield, a forensic psychologist who specializes in interviews of children and observed the trial.
If seven or more responses were observed, the trial would be continued.
In 1999, the Croatian novelist Slavenka Drakulić visited The Hague to observe the trials for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.
"Once you observe the trials and tribulations of running for office and being in office up close," said James Flug, another longtime Kennedy adviser, "it takes a certain kind of person to want to do it.
In the nineteen-seventies, observing the trials of an experimental aircraft, I intended at first to tell the story in a thousand words, but the tests and trials increased in number, changed, went on for years; a rich stream of characters happened through the scene; and the unfolding story had a natural structure analogous to a dramatic plot.
Another 50 kg splinter landed within a few metres of the Naval Minister, Camille Pelletan, who was observing the trials.
Another 50 kg splinter landed within a few meters of the Naval Minister, Camille Pelletan, who was observing the trials.
