Reporter Duru Sentenced For Propaganda

Dicle News Agency (DIHA) reporter Birol Duru and Human Rights Association (IHD) member Daimi Acig have been sentenced to 6 years 3 months imprisonment each on charges of "aiding and abetting the PKK organization".

Duru was detained last year while photographing cannabis fields in the Dinarbey village of Bingol's Karliova district and was set free on December 29, 2005 to stand trial in the case.

While neither of the defendants were present at the last hearing of the Diyarbakir 4th High Criminal Court, their attorney Servet Ozen said they would be appealing against the verdict.

The court ruled for both defendants to be sentenced under Penal Code articles 314/3 and 220/7 finding them guilty of "knowingly and willingly aiding and abetting members of the organization in awareness of their status".

While Duru was caught attempting to get visual confirmation of the cannabis fields in Bingol the story he was working on aimed to uncover claims that the Bingol province Yedisu district Gendarme Commander Captain A.Y. was cultivating the plants in a conspiracy with local villages.

He was arrested on grounds of carrying in his possession a cassette that "praised the militants of the HPG", the Peoples' Defense Forces of the PKK on August 14, 2005. (EO/II/YE)