THE trial of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous author, looked set to collapse after the Turkish Government reportedly refused to back a case that raised questions about the country’s commitment to freedom of speech.

CNN Turk television reported that the Istanbul court trying Mr Pamuk on charges of “publicly denigrating Turkish identity” would drop the case after the Justice Ministry declined to give approval for the prosecution to go ahead.

A senior official said that Cemil Cicek, the Justice Minister, has reiterated, in his response to the court on Friday, that his ministry has no say over the case under a new penal code passed in June. It was not clear when the court would issue its decision. The next hearing is on February 7.

Abandoning the case would be a relief for the Turkish Government, under pressure from the European Union to prove that it stands behind its efforts to bring Turkey into line with EU standards. The EU begins reviewing Turkey’s justice system this week.

Mr Pamuk faced a possible three years in jail for discussing the taboo subject of the killing of Ottoman Armenians during the First World War — something Turkey’s fiercest critics believe amounted to genocide.

“Thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” the author told a Swiss newspaper last year. The Kurdish toll refers to deaths in the south-east, where security forces have been fighting separatists since the 1980s. Ugly demonstrations marred the trial’s first hearing last month. As well as drawing EU observers, it also attracted Turkish nationalists opposed to what they see as foreign interference in Turkish affairs.

At that hearing the court adjourned the case and asked the Justice Ministry for approval for it to go ahead, the standard procedure under laws in effect when Mr Pamuk allegedly offended. The law has since been changed, removing the ministry's role in approving such prosecutions, and it refused to approve the prosecution.

Nationalists hurled eggs at Mr Pamuk’s car and chanted slogans urging the writer to “Love Turkey or Leave Turkey”.

Mr Pamuk was born in 1952 and has achieve an international reputation through novels such as My Name Is Red and Snow.

His fame means that his trial has become the most prominent of a number of freedom-of-speech cases. A conviction would have played into the hands of those who oppose a poor and predominantly Muslim country joining the European Union.

Times Recommends

• It’s only Brits who don’t appreciate me, says Blair
• Party’s over for Greek graspers
• White House tightens security for Xmas marathon