ECtHR convicts Turkey over journalist Deniz Yücel’s imprisonment

* Photo: dpa

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has concluded that the imprisonment of journalist Deniz Yücel, the then Turkey correspondent of Germany's Die Welt newspaper, violated his rights.

The ECtHR has ruled that Turkey shall pay 13,300 Euro in damages for violating the freedom of expression and right to liberty and security of Deniz Yücel, who was arrested in Turkey in 2017.

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In its judgment, the high court has referred to the application of Deniz Yücel to Turkey's Constitutional Court in the face of his arrest in the İstanbul Silivri Prison on charges of "terror propaganda" and "inciting the public to hatred and hostility" and the ruling dated May 28, 2019.

The Constitutional Court, in the above-mentioned ruling, concluded that Yücel's right to liberty and security and freedom of expression were violated and ruled that Yücel should be paid non-pecuniary damages. However, the ECtHR has found that this ruling was insufficient.

Noting that both Yücel's aggrievement and his right to make an individual application as per the Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were still in place for this reason, the ECtHR has finalized the application of Deniz Yücel and given a ruling of rights violation.

It has concluded that Yücel's right to liberty and security (Article 5/1 of the ECHR), his enforceable right to compensation (Article 5/5 of the ECHR) and freedom of expression (Article 10) were violated.

The ruling has been handed down by five votes against two. The ECtHR has ruled that Yücel shall be paid 13,300 Euro in non-pecuniary damages, including 1,000 Euro for the court expenses.

With this recent ruling, the ECtHR has convicted Turkey over the files of nine jailed journalists in total since 2021.

Commenting on the ECtHR ruling, Deniz Yücel's lawyer Veysel Ok has indicated that it is a delayed ruling as it should have been handed down while Yücel was still arrested. "The arbitrariness and unlawfulness of Deniz Yücel's arrest due to his journalistic activities have been confirmed by the ECtHR," lawyer Ok has noted, recalling that the file of Yücel is currently pending before the Court of Cassation in Turkey: "With the ECtHR ruling, the Court of Cassation must overturn the conviction of Yücel and courts must give immediate rulings of acquittal in the other two cases."

What happened?

Deniz Yücel was taken into custody in Turkey on February 14, 2017 over his news reports concerning the hacking of the then Energy Minister Berat Albayrak's email account by RedHack. He was arrested by the court on February 27, 2017 on charges of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "provoking the public to hatred and hostility."

Speaking about the issue, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan briefly said:

"This man is a terrorist, not a journalist and unfortunately the German government lumps my ministers together with this terrorist. The problem lies here. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told me 'We would be glad if you free him'. I told her he is not a journalist but a terrorist. Deniz Yücel hid in the German Consulate General. This man is a terrorist, not a journalist".

Deniz Yücel stayed behind bars for nearly a year. Following the indictment issued against him, the İstanbul 32nd Heavy Penal Court ruled for the release of Deniz Yücel on February 16, 2018. Yücel went to Germany after he was released from prison in Turkey.

While he was still arrested, Yücel made an individual application to the Constitutional Court. His file was examined by the top court two years after the incident, on June 28, 2019. The Constitutional Court concluded that his one-year imprisonment violated his rights and ruled that he should be paid 25 thousand lira in non-pecuniary damages. However, the local court ruled that his statement taken in Berlin should be awaited.

At the hearing held on February 13, 2020, the prosecutor announced the opinion as to the accusations and demanded that Deniz Yücel be sentenced to 15 years, 3 months in prison. It was alleged that Deniz Yücel, with some articles published in Die Welt, "propagandized for the Kurdistan Workers Party / Kurdistan Communities Union (PKK/KCK)."

Announcing its ruling at the final hearing on July 16, 2020, the court ruled that Yücel should be acquitted of "provoking the public to hatred and hostility and sentenced him to 2 years, 9 months, 22 days in prison for "propagandizing for the PKK/KCK armed terrorist organization" via the press.

The court also ruled that a criminal complaint should be filed against Deniz Yücel over his two articles published in Die Welt in 2016 on the grounds that he allegedly "insulted the President" and "degraded the State of the Republic of Turkey, its government, judicial bodies and the security organization of the state" as per the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

Upon this criminal complaint, a new lawsuit was filed against Yücel and a prison sentence of 6 months to 2 years was demanded for him. The first hearing of this trial was held on May 12, 2021. (HA/SD)