Life Sentence for Detained Editor Süsem

In the third go, the Court of Appeals eventually upheld the life sentence for journalist Erdal Süsem, editor of the Eylül Sanat Edebiyat ('September Arts and Literature') magazine. Süsem is being tried and detained under various allegations since the year 2000. The Court of Appeals had overturned the life sentence handed down to the journalist by a local court twice. However, after the local court insisted on its verdict for a third time, the superior court decided to uphold the ruling.

The Fırat News Agency (ANF) reported that the Court of Appeals 9^th Criminal Chamber decided to approve the decision given by the Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court on 24 February. Hence, Süsem finally received a life sentence on charges of "attempting to change the constitutional order by force".

Decision after seven years

The Istanbul 12^th High Criminal Court had previously handed down a life sentence to Süsem twice on the grounds of his alleged membership of the clandestine Maoist Communist Party (MKP). Both decrees were quashed by the Court of Appeals.

Süsem is currently being detained in the scope of another trial related to the Eylül magazine that was opened on 31 January. His sentence will be executed upon the latest decision.

In respect to the trial that now resulted in a life sentence, Süsem was taken into police custody on 21 March 2000 under allegations of membership of the illegal Turkish Workers' Peasants' Liberation Army (TİKKO). The journalist was forced to "confess" at the police station. He was tortured when he refused to do so.

Severe torture after he refused to "confess"

His father, Halil Süsem, said that a lawyer called İlhami Yelekçi was recommended to him by some people he knew. Also the lawyer advised Süsem to confess. When the journalist refused, Yelekçi apparently gave the order to torture him.

Halil Süsem recalled that his son was in a very bad state when he saw him the next time. He had received electrical shocks and had been exposed to pressurized water and a bastinado punishment.

The Forensic Medicine Institute confirmed the torture of Süsem in a medical report.

Süsem initially received a life sentence on the grounds of his alleged membership of the MKP in 2007. However, he was discharged when the Court of Appeals overturned the decree for the first time.

He started to publish the Eylül magazine on prison arts and literature on 1 April 2007 subsequent to his release.

Detained because of Eylül magazine since last year

Copies of the magazine were seized in prisons and the prisoners' writings sent to the magazine were blocked. Süsem was taken into custody again on 31 January 2010 in relation to the magazine.

According to Süsem's statement, he was taken into custody by "being lifted up roughly and then carried off in a co-operation of the police and the gendarmerie like a scene of an action movie". He was taken to court on 5 February and arrested by reasons of "unfounded allegations and legal materials".

Among the quoted evidence for the arrest were cards sent to the magazine from different prisons and books received from publishing companies.

Süsem claimed that "the cards shown as evidence had passed through the examination of the state commission in prisons and were stamped as 'checked'. They were publications that had been approved for publication by the state. My arrest despite legal evidence displays arbitrariness and the unlawful attack shows the government's attitude against the 'opposition press'", he criticized. (EÇ/VK)