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An appeal has been filed against the acquittal of journalist Derya Okatan for reporting on leaked emails of then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak.
The İstanbul 29th Heavy Penal Court on December 31 acquitted Okatan of all charges, including "illegally obtaining personal data."
Albayrak's attorney Ahmet Özel today (January 5) filed an appeal with the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice. The attorney alleged that Okatan's acquittal was against procedures and the law.
In the case in question, six journalists stood trial for reporting on the emails leaked by the RedHack group. Five of them were sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison for "illegally obtaining personal data."
Okatan had said at the final hearing that she was "surprised" by the charges against her.
"The prosecutor's office wants me to be punished, predicting that I had been using the ETHA's [social media] account because I was the responsible manager, but there is no proof," she said. "I was put on trial with suspicion and now a punishment is demanded with suspicion," she had said.
"Neither me nor ETHA had anything to do with the dissemination of the emails. Let alone spreading them, I don't even have that data. If it's a crime to follow the RedHack account, shouldn't hundreds of people be in this hall right now? Also, how can following an account be a crime?
What happened?The six journalists were detained on December 25, 2016, for reporting on Albayrak's leaked emails. After 24 days in detention, Öğreten, Kanaat and Çelik were remanded in custody while the others were released. The journalists were charged with committing a crime in the name of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) while not being members of these groups. The files of three other people —Deniz Yücel, a reporter for Die Welt, journalist Fatih Yağmur and a person identified with the codename "Unknown Person" — who were remanded in custody in the same investigation were later separated. The indcitment was prepared six months later and the first hearing was held on October 24, 2017. Ömer Çelik was released after the first hearing. Tunca Öğreten and Mahir Kanaat were released on probation after the second hearing on December 6, 2017. Önder and Kanaat's individual applications to the Constitutional Court were dismissed. |
(HA/VK)
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