Siirt 1st High Criminal Court released 4 defendants within KCK case including Abdullah Çetin, a report from DIHA.
27 defendants, 5 of them were under arrest, had been on trial for two and a half years on charges of “being an organization manager” and “being a member of an organization” in KCK case conducted in Kurtalan.
While Siirt 1st High Criminal Court ordered the release of Abdullah Çetin,a reporter at DİHA, Ünal Bozyiğit, Ahmet Keklik, Necmettin Özdemir, it decided the continuation of Abdulgafur Kubilay’s arrest.
Çetin, a reporter at DİHA, stated in his defence that all the tapes in the indictment was for news purposes. Other defendants expressed all of the charges about themselves were the activities of the municipality and BDP [Peace and Democracy Party].
According to bianet's Media Monitoring Report, 35 journalists and 15 distributers were in prison in April. 22 of the journalists and 15 of the distributors are from Kurdish media; As part of TMK [Anti-Terror Act] and TCK [Turkish Penal Code] they are imprisoned for “ relating to an organization.”
After the release of the report, journalists Füsun Erdoğan, Arif Çelebi and Bayram Namaz were also released in May. (NV/MEV/BM)
* bianet compiled the news from Fırat News Agency (ANF).
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
