Journalist Kapmaz Receives Prison Sentence For Presenting Pro-Kurdish Perspective

Journalist Cengiz Kapmaz is sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined 375 YTL (about 179 Euro) for his interview with former Democracy Party (DEP) deputy Orhan Doğan. He was charged with “doing propaganda work for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)”.

Kapmaz told bianet that the sentence was announced on the same day with Chief of Staff İlker Başbuğ’s meeting with his choice of the newspapers as if to show what might happen to those journalists who talk differently about the Kurdish Problem.

The investigation that eventually led to Kapmaz’s sentence was launched for his words “A group of politicians led by Zübeyir Aydar should come to Turkey before the elections. They should enter the parliament as independent deputies and Öcalan can be put under house arrest”. Kapmaz was working for the newspaper Ülkede Özgür Gündem at the time. He now works for the newspaper Referans.

Kapmaz receives prison sentence and two newspaper administrators are fined

Kapmaz was found guilty by ıstanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court yesterday (September 16) for his article titled “Let PKK enter the Parliament” published on June 22, 2006.

His lawyer Özcan Kılıç defended him by stating that these words were not his client’s, but Orhan Doğan’s, with whom the interview was conducted.

The court reduced Kapmaz’s sentence from one year in prison to ten months in prison and 375 YTL fine. It also fined the administrators of the newspapers at the time, Hasan Bayar and Ali Gürbüz, 2000 YTL (about 1100 euro) and 4000 YTL (about 2200 euro) respectively.

Describing himself as a journalist looking at the Kurdish Problem from a different perspective, Kapmaz is planning to appeal the decision. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)