ECHR Sentences Turkey For Violating Freedom Of Expression

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has sentenced Turkey for punishing Sakine Aktan, a reporter of the newspaper Özgür Bakış, for having an interview with the President of the Kurdistan Journalists Association.

The Istanbul State Security Court had sentenced Aktan to prison for one year and eight months in May 2001 and fined her in February 2008, both for her interview published in December 1999 regarding the problems of the reporters working in the Kurdish media. The decisions were based on article 312 of the old penal Code.

Aktan was acquitted when he was retried under the new Penal Code that went into effect in June 1, 2005. But, the decision was appealed by the prosecutor of the case. Now, the sides are waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The ECHR stated yesterday (September 23) in its announcement regarding the case that since a retrial process was commenced, the right to a just trial was not violated, but the the 10th article of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers the freedom of expression, was violated.

Since the statements in the interview which criticized the Turkish State, rather very harshly, did not encourage use of violence or call to an armed resistance or uprising, the ECHR described the sentences given to Aktan “unproportional and unnecessary in a democratic society.”

Turkey will pay Aktan 1500 euro in damages for pain and suffering.(EÖ/EÜ/TB)