Appeal against journalist Sedef Kabaş’s arrest rejected by court

* Photo: Başak Akbulut Yazar / AA

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The İstanbul 58th Criminal Court of First Instance has rejected the appeal against the pre-trial detention of journalist Sedef Kabaş, who has been arrested for "insulting the President" following a program that she attended on TELE 1 and sent to Bakırköy Prison in İstanbul.

Kabaş's lawyer Uğur Poyraz previously appealed against her arrest on the grounds that it was against the European Convention on Human Rights, the legal precedents of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Constitution on procedural grounds and as to the merits.

In his 4-page petition submitted to the court, lawyer Poyraz requested that Sedef Kabaş be released on probation.

Rejecting the appeal against Kabaş's arrest, the İstanbul 58th Criminal Court of First Instance has referred to "the strong suspicion that the offense was committed publicly in its aggravated form and the fact that the suspect was put on trial before on a similar charge."

Accordingly, the court has dismissed the appeal by concluding that "the ruling of arrest handed down by the İstanbul 10th Criminal Judgeship of Peace was not without due process of law or against the law"

Lawyer Uğur Poyraz has announced the rejection on his social media account, saying, "We will struggle against the heavy pressure on the judiciary by legal means and ensure that Sedef Kabaş is free again."

What happened?

Journalist Sedef Kabaş was arrested on January 22 for "insulting the President" because of her words during a live broadcast a week ago.

"There is a famous saying, 'A crowned head will get wiser.' But we see that this isn't the reality. There is also a saying that is the exact opposite: 'When cattle go into a palace, they don't become the king; the palace becomes a barn'," Kabaş said during a program on TELE1 TV on January 14.

A week later, she posted the second quote on her Twitter and Instagram accounts as a "Circassian proverb," replacing the word "cattle" with "ox."

Shortly after, at around 2 a.m. on Saturday, she was detained during a police raid. Hours later, a penal judgeship of peace remanded her in custody. (HA/SD)