Süleyman Çakmak, former Vice Director of the Tunceli National Education Department, and Samsun Municipality employee İlker Erdoğan were sentenced to imprisonment of 90 days each because of threatening and insulting messages sent to the staff of the Tunceli Emek newspaper. The charges stem from messages sent to the paper via e-mail after the publication of an article entitled "Public education and a strange education".
Çakmak and Erodğan were sentenced according to Article 125/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) regarding "insult". The Magistrate Criminal Court of Tunceli (eastern Anatolia) mitigated the sentence to imprisonment of 75 days each before the penalty was converted into a monetary fine. The pronouncement of judgement was postponed.
Compensation claim
The newspaper officials went to court in 2009 after they had received threatening and insulting e-mails from the msn addresses called "striking cobra" and "ilker2355". The e-mails referred to the aforementioned article. The newspaper officials filed a criminal complaint and subsequently also a compensation claim for material and non-pecuniary damage.
The local newspaper announced that Çakmak was tried in the scope of another case filed by a person who had allegedly been threatened by e-mails of him as well. In this trial, he will be due in court again on 14 June.
Çakmak filed a case against Helin Karakoyun and Dilek Karakoyun by reason of two articles entitled "Cobras were not directors in our times" and "I am sick of the Justice in Tunceli". Both journalist were acquitted.
12 trials pending against local newspaper
Helin Karakoyun, columnist of the Tunceli local daily, had two trials opened against her in recent times, both of them stemming from articles and news items. Tunceli Emek columnist Mustafa Elveren has four trials pending against him. One of these cases is based on Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) on "propaganda for an illegal organization". In the other three trials, Elveren is prosecuted under allegations of "praising a criminal" as regulated by Article 215 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK).
Newspaper owner Dilek Karakoyun is facing charges of "attempting to influence a fair trial" according to Article 288 TCK and "propaganda for an illegal organization" in two trials pending. Editor-in-chief Çiğdem Duymaz is being prosecuted in four different cases, one of them related to charges of "propaganda for an illegal organization". (EÖ/VK)
