Bülent Şık acquitted

* Photo: Yağmur Karagöz / bianet

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Sentenced to 1 year, 3 months in prison on the grounds that he shared the Health Ministry's data on cancer with the public, food engineer Asst. Prof. Bülent Şık's prison sentence has been overturned by the 13th Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice.

The Penal Chamber has concluded that the Ministry's report was not a confidential document; Bülent Şık has been acquitted.

As reported by Canan Coşkun from Diken news website, the ruling of the court of appeals has noted that there is a condition that the Ministry of Health announce the results of a scientific study after all information and data are collected. Referring to the legal provisions, the ruling has indicated that this situation does not make the related report a document which is forbidden or confidential or a secret. The court has also said that the related act could have been examined within the scope of a disciplinary action if Şık had still been on public duty. Accordingly, the 13th Penal Chamber has concluded that the elements of the offense charged were not constituted.

Following the ruling, Bülent Şık has tweeted, "The 15-month prison sentence given to me for announcing the results of cancer research kept secret by the Ministry of Health has been reversed by the court of appeals. I have been acquitted. I would like to thank all friends and civil society organizations, primarily fellow lawyers... in brief everyone who supported me."

What happened?

Food engineer Asst. Prof. Bülent Şık faced 5-12 years of jail for releasing the findings of a research that he participated in under the auspices of the Ministry of Health when he worked as Deputy Director of Food Safety and Agricultural Research Centre at Akdeniz University.

The lawsuit was filed against Şık on charges of "disclosure of secrets about duty" (Turkish Penal Code Article No. 258); "provision of prohibited information" (Turkish Penal Code Article No. 334); and "disclosure of prohibited information" (Turkish Penal Code Article No. 336).

In the indictment issued by the Prosecutor from the İstanbul Terror and Organized Crimes Investigation Bureau, the article series of Bülent Şık published on Cumhuriyet newspaper and bianet were cited as the reason for the charges brought against him.

The article series of Bülent Şık subjected to investigation were on "the Project on Assessment of Environmental Factors in the Provinces of Kocaeli, Antalya, Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli and Their Impacts on Health," the findings of which have not been published by the state officials.

In his third and final hearing held at the İstanbul 2nd Penal Court of First Instance on September 26, 2019, Şık was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison on charge of "disclosing information about duty" while he was acquitted of "providing prohibited information".

The court did not suspend the prison sentence of Şık on the ground that "he had not regretted". The verdict of conviction was taken to the court of appeal, which would either reverse or uphold the prison sentence.

Having signed the Peace Academics' declaration of "We will not be a party to this crime," Asst Prof. Bülent Şık had been discharged from academia by the Statutory Decree no. 677. (EKN/SD)