A court today acquitted İstanbul Bar Association Chair İbrahim Kaboğlu and 10 board members today in a case involving charges of "making terrorist propaganda" and "public dissemination of misleading information." The board members had faced up to 12 years in prison.
The trial took place at the İstanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court within the Marmara Closed Penal Institution complex in Silivri on the outskirts of İstanbul. Representatives from 30 bar associations and 17 international legal unions from 83 countries monitored the hearing.
In the hearing, the judges ruled that the elements of the alleged crimes had not been established. Following the announcement of the ruling, lawyers in the courtroom chanted, "Defense has not remained silent and will not remain silent."
The case originated from a Dec 19, 2024 airstrike in northern Syria that killed journalists Cihan Bilgin and Nazım Daştan. While the Turkish government did not claim responsibility for the attack, Turkey had been regularly conducting targeted airstrikes in Syria's northern and eastern regions controlled by a Kurdish-led autonomous administration, which Ankara views as a "terrorist" entity.
Following the deaths, the İstanbul Bar Association released a statement emphasizing that targeting journalists in conflict zones violates international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The bar stated that attacking civilians not engaged in hostilities constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute.
Prosecutors subsequently indicted the board members, alleging that the journalists were members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group. The indictment claimed the bar portrayed the journalists as civilians to "legitimize the use of violence" by a terrorist organization and argued the statement "disturbed public order." (VK)
