With her acquittal overturned, journalist Selda Manduz sentenced to prison
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Journalist Selda Manduz appeared before the judge today (February 8) after the appeals court overturned her acquittal of "propagadizing for a terrorist organization". The journalist has been sentenced to 1 year, 6 months in prison on the same charge in the retrial.
The final hearing of the journalist was held at the Kars 2nd High Criminal Court in eastern Turkey; both Manduz and her lawyers attended the hearing. Manduz rejected the allegations and requested her acquittal.
The court board has ruled that Manduz shall be sentenced to 1 year, 6 months in prison for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" with the news and pictures that she posted on social media. The pronouncement of the verdict has been deferred by the court board, which has also ruled that all seized materials of Manduz shall be given back to the journalist.
What happened?
Selda Manduz, an editor for Demokrat Haber news website, was taken into custody in March 2019; Manduz was charged with "terror propaganda". The journalist was indicted and the trial began.
As part of an investigation of the Kars Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Manduz was detained again on October 1, 2020. Taken to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace three days later, she was released on probation.
Based on the statements of two anonymous witnesses and on the grounds of her phone calls with three people, two of whom were journalists, she was charged with "being a member of an armed terrorist organization". She was indicted a month later and the trial began.
Manduz was acquitted at her seventh hearing in April 2021. However, the prosecutor's office took her acquittal to the appeals court, the Erzurum Regional Court of Justice. The appeals court accepted the objection and ruled for a retrial on charge of "terror propaganda".
The court concluded that the journalist should have been convicted of this charged offense on the grounds of a news report that she posted on her social media account on January 24, 2017 and the picture used in the news. The related news report was titled "The historical moment of the Neo-Ottoman dream and the North Syria Federation."
(HA/SD)
