Writer Magden Receives Suspended Prison Sentence

An article published in the weekly Aktüel magazine on 7 February led to her trial under Article 125 of the Penal Code, for "those ascribing a concrete action or fact of a nature which can injure someone's honour and respectability, or those fabricating facts or swearing".

Article "represents insult" 

Magden was thus tried for insulting district governor (Kaymakam) Aytac Akgül, then the Kaymakam of Yüksekova, in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

The European Council, of which Turkey is a member, demands of its member states that they avoid giving prison sentences for crimes of "insult"; however, Article 125 foresees prison sentences from three months to two years or legal fines. 

Magden wrote an article entitled "The (Arrogant) Woman is the Wolf, the Fox, the Turkey of Women: She Eats and Finishes", in which she described what people told her of Kaymakam Akgül when she visited the area.

Akgül is now Kaymakam in the Bulanik district of Mus, also in the southeast of Turkey, and it is here that the trial was initially held. The Bulanik Chief Prosecutor Özgür Beyazit said in his indictment of May 2006 that the expressions Magden used were "an insult of a civil servant due to their position".

Case later transferred to Istanbul 

The Bulanik Criminal Court of Peace accepted Magden's lawyer's demand to transfer the case to the Istanbul 2nd Penal Court. This court sentenced Magden on 4 December, arguing that the expressions went beyond criticism. Following Article 51 of the Penal Code, her sentence of 1 year and 2 months was suspended because she did not have a police record.

In her article, Magden wrote: "It seems, according to those we spoke to that the Yüksekova Kaymakam (no name needed) whose place of duty was later changed, was a real 'case'. Is it possible to hate the people 'out there' so much, to alienate, exclude, treat them like insects, like enemies. We all said, is that much possible? One person said to us, "The Kaymakam you saw yesterday? She is a Kurd from Erzurum." As a 'snow-white' Turk I could not believe it. Expressions of suprise, that cannot be! Fervently and agitatedly. A mistake. Then an older guy among us said: 'Do not be surprised: A Kurdish traitor is really treacherous.'" (EÖ/TK)