Author Erdal Yıldırım given prison sentence for 'terror propaganda'

Photo: Temel Demirer/Twitter

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Author Erdal Yıldırım has been sentenced to 1 year, 6 months and 22 days in prison for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization."

The case concerned five social media posts he shared between 2015 and 2018. The posts were about İbrahim Kaypakkaya, an iconic revolutionary who died in 1973, and the 2014 battle between Kurdish groups and ISIS in Syria's Kobanî.

The final hearing of the case was held today (November 4) at the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court.

While the prosecutor demanded a prison sentence for the author, he said he repeats his defense statements from the previous hearings, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported.

"Hundreds of people come to commemorate İbrahim Kaypakkaya. I didn't share post about any terrorist organization. I have no words like a call for violence," Yıldırım said at the hearing.

Constitutional Court rulings

Onur Şahinkaya, an attorney for the author, pointed out that the Constitutional Court had previously deemed similar social media messages legal.

"We presented example rulings about İbrahim Kaypakkaya commemoration in the file. There are no expressions in the client's posts that incite people to violence or creating widespread sympathy for threatening actions. There is no such finding in the indictment, either. We demand an acquittal," said the attorney

Attorney Aysemin Gülmez said "reading intentions of Yılmaz had no relation whatsoever to justice."

Attorney İbrahim Yıldırım said the author mentioned oppressed people in Syria and a person who was killed in detention and therefore what he said could not be considered as "terror propaganda."

After the defense statements, the court handed down its judgment. It did not defer the sentence. (KÖ/VK)