Lawyer of Detained Journalist Kurşun Recused Member of Court

Serhat Eren, lawyer of former editorial manger Vedat Kurşun of the Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat, demanded to recuse a member of the Diyarbakır 5^th High Criminal Court, where his client Kurşun is tried, due to the judge's involvement in a decision related to a publication ban imposed on the Azdiya Welat daily in 2006.

Vedat Kurşun has been in detention for 15 months now in the Diyarbakır D Type Prison in south-eastern Turkey. The court postponed the case to 13 May in order to evaluate the lawyer's demand of rejection.

Eren: Court member lost his independence

Lawyer Eren told bianet that one judge of the court delegation was involved into the decision to impose a publication ban on Azadiya Welat on 22 March 2006. "The reasons for the publication ban expressed by the judge at the time constitute a lack of independence and neutrality for this file. Thus we requested to recuse him", Eren explained.

In the hearing on 6 May, Eren criticized the fact that the news items and articles subject of the trial were translated from Kurdish to Turkish by a police official of the Anti-Terror Branch. Eren stated that the translations were biased since they were "incomplete and incorrect".

Punishment for the headline" Respect for the Fighters of Freedom"

On 30 March, the Diyarbakır 4^th High Criminal Court handed down a prison sentence of three years to journalist Vedat Kurşun under charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, based on news items published in the issues of 11 and 12 August 2007.

Reasons for Kurşun's conviction were several items published in the issue of 11 August 2007. Those were the announcement of the death of Mazhar İlbasan, Demirci Taştekin and Vural Soydemir, members of the People's Defence Forces (HPG), an armed wing of the PKK, as the result of clashes in Tunceli; a poem for PKK members written by Nesih Özcan and a notice saying "We are educated in front of fighters for freedom. The Patriotic 'Norşin' in Mersin".

In jail for a long time

Kurşun is currently tried in 32 different cases. Court Prosecutor Yakup Yar demanded prison sentence of up to five years for each issue on subject under charges of "propaganda for an illegal organization" on the grounds of criminal contents in a total of 103 issues of the newspaper. Furthermore, prosecutor Yar requested imprisonment of up to another ten years for "membership in an illegal organization".

This means that Kurşun is facing a total prison sentence of up to 525 years due to the prosecutor's demand of a103 counts sentence based on the Anti-Terror Act. Prosecutor Yar referred in his demand to certain terms used in the articles such as "Kurdistan", "guerrilla", "martyr", "leader of the Kurdish people" or "respectable Öcalan" besides the publishing of notes made during an interview with Öcalan, criticism of the conditions of detention in Imralı prison where Öcalan serves his sentence and announcements of PKK executives.

Sinan Sayan released

Günlük newspaper reported that journalist Sinan Sayan, Azadiya Welat correspondent in the south-eastern province of Van, was released in his first hearing after he was detained in prison for 1.5 years. Sayan had been detained in the course of a police raid on his office on 6 November 2008. Nesrin Akgül, who was visiting Sayan at the time of the raid, is still in detention. (EÖ/VK)