20 Months to Jail for News on Kurdish Question

Guilty of "making propaganda for the PKK" (the militant Kurdistan Workers Party) and of "praising a criminal" was the verdict given by Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court for journalist Saadet Irmak. Irmak is the owner and editorial manager of the weekly Yeni Yorum ('New Comment') magazine and the Ülkede Yorum ('Comment on the Country') newspaper.

The final hearing was held on 26 May. Irmak's penalty was based on the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) and Article 215 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) on "praising an offender". Both the TMY and Article 215 TCK are reasons for systematic convictions of the Turkish government before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Irmak's lawyer Özcan Kılıç reportedly filed an appeal against the decision.

The journalist was initially sentenced to imprisonment of one year on charges of "publishing statements of an illegal organization". This accusation was based on the two articles "All aspects of my life will be Kurdish" and "The last chance for a democratic solution" published in the 20-26 January 2010 issue of the Yeni Yorum magazine.

The sentence was mitigated to ten months due to a lack of criminal record, Irmak's past and the "anticipated future effects of the penalty". Irmak was handed down an additional prison sentence of one month under Article 215 TCK. This punishment was aggravated to 1.5 months because the offence had been done via the media. Eventually, the total punishment was converted into a monetary fine of TL 740 (€ 370).

Reason for Irmak's prosecution was the publishing of an article that conveyed a government-critical statement of the Executive Board of the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK) on the Kurdish question. In the news the KCK Steering Board was quoted as saying that "the government neither properly evaluated nor made an earnest approach towards the conditions of a unilateral ceasefire that had been announced by the KCK for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question. Instead of taking concrete steps towards a solution, the government carried on their exploitation", the announcement continued.

Another subject of the trial was the use of the term "Leader of the Kurdish People" in reference to Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK who has been imprisoned on Imralı Island since 1999.

Additionally, Irmak received a monetary fine of TL 16,600 (€ 8,300) on charges of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" based on the article "Making no Mistake" published in the Ülkede Yorum newspaper issue of 8-14 November 2010.

Journalist Irmak was handed down yet another ten-month prison sentence charged with "publishing a statement of the PKK" on the grounds of an article entitled "The Kurds will establish their own courts". The article dealt with the results of a meeting of the KCK Supreme Justice Council. Irmak was furthermore convicted because of the article "The state is positive; the politicians are the obstacle" in which he again referred to imprisoned PKK leader Öcalan as the "leader of the Kurdish people". Also the latter sentence was finally converted into a monetary fine of TL 740. (EÖ/VK)