Mor Yakup Church priest Aho Bileçen sentenced to prison

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Taken into custody as part of a "terror investigation" in Mardin's Nusaybin district and briefly arrested in 2020, Mor Yakup Church's priest Aho (Sefer) Bileçen has been sentenced to 2 years, 1 month in prison in the trial where he was charged with "aiding the organization."

While the hearing held at the Mardin 4h Heavy Penal Court was not attended by priest Bileçen, his attorney was present in the courtroom.

The prosecutor repeated the opinion as to the accusations and demanded that Bileçen be penalized for "aiding the organization." The court has handed down its ruling after the defense of his attorney and ruled that the priest shall be sentenced to 2 years, 1 month in prison in total.

What happened?

Sefer (Aho) Bileçen, the priest of Mor Yakup Church, was detained along with 10 others in Nusaybin, Mardin on January 9, 2020. Arrested a day later, he was released on January 14 upon the objection to his arrest. Along with him, 12 people, including Üçköy village head Joseph Yar and Musa Taştekin, a Syriac citizen who returned to Turkey after years, were detained.

In arresting Bileçen, the prosecutor's office referred to the statement of an informant and a gendarmerie report indicating that "the members of the organization had entered the monastery" in 2018. Bileçen was charged with "being a member of the organization." After he was arrested, Bileçen spoke to the members of the Urfa Bar Association's Human Rights Commission and shared the following message via his attorneys:

"Two members of the organization came to the monastery in 2018. They asked me for food. And I gave it. It was detected afterwards. In response to this, the Gendarmerie Commander met me through the metropolitan bishop. I did not deny it. I wanted security measures to be taken so that this incident would not happen again. But no security measures were taken.

"I thought that the case was closed after the report was taken down. I would give no matter who came to my door. I need to do it religiously and philosophically. I cannot lie as I am a priest. I did it not in order to aid an organization, but due to my faith. Philosophically, I cannot tip off, either. It is also religiously the case. I do not leave the monastery anyway." (HA/SD)