Journaist Çelik Sentenced for News about Police Officers
Imprisonment of ten months was the verdict for journalist Ersin Çelik on the grounds of a news item about the death of Dicle University student Aydın Erdem. In his article, Çelik had put forward that Erdem died from police bullets when he attended a demonstration in 2009.
The student had actually joined a protest march for people who lost their lives because they were shot by the police and was then gunned down himself. Çelik, reporter for the Dicle News Agency (DİHA) at the time, was tried because he named the alleged perpetrators in his article.
It was reported on Friday (13 May) that the Diyarbakrı 6th High Criminal Court handed down a ten-month prison sentence to the journalists on charges of "disclosing the identity of a public official on anti-terror duties".
Çelik was not able to attend the hearing because he is currently being detained in the scope of another trial. He was represented by his lawyer Servet Özen.
The prosecution renewed their final plea due to a change of the court board and requested the court give a decision accordingly.
Lawyer Özen demanded his client's acquittal.
After the final decision was announced, Özen declared to file an appeal.
Convicted despite exculpatory statement
In January 2010 in the context of a different case, journalist Çelik and a further 26 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment of six years and three months each by the Malatya 3rd High Criminal Court. They were found guilty of "membership of an illegal organization".
Journalist Çelik's lawyer Hasan Doğan pointed out that his client, as a DİHA Agency journalist, was working in and around the province of Şırnak at the south-eastern tip of Anatolia. Therefore, Çelik could de facto not have been seen in the central Anatolian province of Malatya. Lawyer Doğan underlined that the only thing Sade said about his client was "I know him. He is a DİHA journalist".
In the confrontation in the hearing on 2 June 2008, Sade said about Çelik: "I know him. He works for the Dicle News Agency. He does not have any connections to YDGM", Doğan recalled. "This statement is not against but in favour of my client", Doğan said and requested Çelik's acquittal (EÇ/EÖ/VK)