Journalist Özer Does Not Receive The Revised Treatment Of Article 301

Following the reversals in the Supreme Court of Appeals, Aziz Özer, owner and manager in-charge of the magazine “Yeni Dünya için Çağrı”, was sentenced again for the cases he was tried for under article 301.

Özer’s lawyer Özcan Kılıç said that they could not make use of the revised version of article 301 in three of the cases. The revised 301 requires that the article 301 cases are sent to the Ministry of Justice for permission.

Punishment for Iraq, the AKP, the hunger strike and the critique of the regime

The 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance had sentenced Özer for criticizing the Justice and Development Party (AKP) through two of his articles that appeared in the “Çağrı” magazine in December 2003: “For whom the light bulb is on” and “We did not forget the December 19 massacre”. The sentence was not converted to a fine.

The court also sentenced him for his articles titled “The Turkish Republic for 80 years, Fascism for 80 years” and “No to being a partner in the occupation in Iraq” to 19 months in prison, but the sentence was converted to a fine. The court later reconsidered its ruling after it came back from the Supreme Court of Appeals. It finally sentenced Özer to a fine in the amount of 175 euro.

He was sentenced for the Anti Terror Law (TMY)

The11th High Criminal Court of Istanbul tried Özer under the article 7/2 of the Anti Terror Law and sentenced him for his article titled “The Kurdish problem, the solutions and our duties” that appeared in the periodical mentioned above  to prison for one year and three months. The file was appealed.

Finally the 2nd High Criminal Court of Beyoğlu/Istanbul fined him for the articles titled “Operationland” and “The State attack on the prisons” that appeared in the special  February 2001 issue of the periodical on March 26, 2006 for 350 euro.(EÖ/TB)