Turkey’s top court finds journalist Cemil Uğur’s arrest for reporting on torture unlawful

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The Constitutional Court has concluded the application on the pre-trial detention of journalist Cemil Uğur for six months. The top court has found his arrest in violation of the right to personal liberty and security.

Cemil Uğur was one of the five journalists who were detained and arrested after having reported on an incident where two citizens, Osman Şiban and Servet Turgut, were dropped from a helicopter by soldiers in Turkey's Kurdish-majority eastern province of Van.

Representing the journalist at court, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) has reported that the top court has found that the six months long pre-trial detention of journalist Cemil Uğur was unconstitutional and, through this detention, his "right to personal liberty and security", as regulated by the Article 19th of the Constitution, was violated.

The court has also concluded that it is "unnecessary" to examine separately the claim that journalist Cemil Uğur's freedom of expression and freedom of the press was violated, arguing that the detention constituted a violation in terms of the right to liberty and security.

Arguing that the main motivation behind the journalist's arrest and the subsequent pre-trial detention was baseless, the Constitutional Court has reasoned that the prosecutor's office failed to provide evidence for the claim that "the journalist operated in line with the Article 14th of the Agreement of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)" and ruled that the journalist should not have been charged with "membership of a terrorist organization" on the grounds of the content of his news reports.

In its ruling, the Constitutional Court has also referred to the prosecution's claim that the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), for which some of the journalists put on trial in the case worked at that time, "operated in line with the directives by the terrorist organization". The ruling has read:

"In the arrest warrant, it was stated that the news agency where the applicant worked, produced news reports in favour of the terrorist organization, however, no news reports belonging to the applicant were provided for the claim. It cannot be put forward that the fact that the applicant's employment at such an agency can be considered to constitute a crime without taking into account the contents of the news reports penned by the applicant."

The court has ruled that there is no need to evaluate Uğur's articles on Osman Şiban and Servet Turgut, who were tortured by the security forces. It has justified its ruling by arguing that even though Cemil Uğur was asked about these articles during his questioning, these articles were not mentioned in the request for the arrest warrant and the indictment.

The Constitutional Court has concluded that Uğur's claim that his right to liberty and security was violated was admissible. It has found that, through his unlawful detention, Uğur's right to liberty and security as guaranteed by the Article 19th of the Constitution was violated and ruled that he shall be paid 67,500 Turkish Lira (TRY) in non-pecuniary damages.

What happened?

Journalists Adnan Bilen, Cemil Uğur, Şehriban Abi and Nazan Sala were arrested on October 9, 2020 after their news report and they were held in pre-trial detention for nearly six months before being released pending trial at the first hearing held on April 2, 2021.

In their news report, journalists broke the story of how villagers in Van's Çatak district were tortured by the security forces and that Osman Şiban and Servet Turgut were thrown off from a helicopter by soldiers.

At the fourth hearing of the trial held on January 6, 2021, all the journalists were acquitted of "membership in a terrorist organization" charge. The court, however, sentenced journalist Nazan Sala to 1 year, 3 months in prison for "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" charge. The court's deferred the announcement of the verdict for Sala. (HA/SD)