Evrensel and bianet are ‘so-called media outlets’, according to prosecutor

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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Taken into custody with 151 others in October 2020 as part of an investigation launched by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office based on "anonymous witness statements", journalist Cihan Ölmez has been indicted and the court has accepted the indictment.

Cihan Ölmez was in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak when there were curfews and armed conflicts in the region, including Şırnak's Cizre, in the years of 2015 and 2016. The prosecutor's indictment now cites his statements to the press and his social media posts about these statements as criminal evidence against the journalist.

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency, the prosecutor's office has indicted Ölmez for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization." The indictment has been accepted by the Diyarbakır 5th Heavy Penal Court.

The indictment refers to the following social media posts of Ölmez: A news report published in Evrensel on February 25, 2016 - "DİHA Reporter Cihan Ölmez: Journalists survive by chance in Cizre; a news report published in Demokrat Haber on March 8, 2016 - "We leave a note in history"; and a news report published in bianet on January 10, 2016 - "Cizre Reporter Cihan Ölmez: I am not the same person after what I saw."

In reference to the Evrensel newspaper and bianet, the prosecutor's indictment says "the so-called media outlets backing the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) / Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)."

The prosecutor's office has also considered it to be a crime element that Ölmez referred to the conflicts during the curfew as a "war."

The indictment has further said, "...creating a perception of massacre, he gave some statements by using arguments with the same motive in order to legitimize the terrorist organization and terrorism."

Within this context, the indictment demands that journalist Ölmez be penalized for "praising force and violence."

First hearing to be held on July 13

Speaking about the trial, Ölmez has said that the conditions that he referred to in his previous statements to the press are still the case in the region. "The government terrorizes everyone who does not propagandize for it and the judiciary acts within this frame," he has noted, adding:

"Several crimes were committed during the curfews. We have not seen that the judiciary has taken any step about this issue so far. The indictment has been prepared in a completely biased language far from the law. We can understand this from the fact that there is a reference to the Evrensel newspaper and bianet as 'so-called media outlets backing the organization'."

The first hearing of the case will be held on July 13. (EMK/SD)