Dicle News Agency reporter İsmail Eskin was released pending trial in his first hearing after five months in detention. Eskin had been arrested when he was covering a demonstration against conditions of detention for imprisoned Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The 1st Magistrate Criminal Court of Kocaeli (east of Istanbul) detained Eskin on 4 December 2009. He was taken before the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court on 18 May.
Brought to court in handcuffs, released pending trial
Eskin, third year student of the journalism department at Kocaeli University, covered the protest action in the Topçular district of Kocaeli on 29 November. The student was arrested at his home on 1 December claiming that he deliberately joined the incident and that he allegedly joined activities related to propaganda for a terrorist organization. He was detained on 4 December and taken to the Kandıra Prison.
Eskin was brought to the courthouse in Beşiktaş (European side of Istanbul) in handcuffs. The court decided to release him pending trial.
"I did not attend the demonstration, I worked as a journalist"
In yesterday's first hearing, Eskin told judge Murat Koper that he came to the protest action in Kocaeli to make news about it in correspondence with the DİHA news director. "The protest action had already started when I arrived, fires had been lit, there were fireworks and people danced an Anatolian folk dance. I did not get close to the crowd, I was carrying the video camera and the photo camera the agency had given to me, I also had my press card. I did not participate in the demonstration, I do not accept the charges against me. I was there because of my work only. I work for the news agency to earn a living", Eskin stated.
Court judge Murat Koper said in the decision for detention, "From the confiscated photographs it is understood that he was not personally pursued, he was not obstructed and he is only seen in an angry pose".
The indictment assessed Eskin's taking pictures and making news as "organizational activities". In the file presented as evidence by the Kocaeli Police Directorate it is said that 38 names registered in Eskin's phone book are subject to a query.
As part of the evidence for Eskin's detention, it was also stated that the Police Directorate had information about 34 people, including Eskin's colleague DİHA reporter Serkan Kurt, agency manager Kadri Kaya, Istanbul Deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Sebahat Tuncel and Eskin's fellow students.
The indictment quotes the following statement of the police officers: "We know these persons from numerous previous actions. We confirmed that these persons participated in the protest action".
In the course of the search of Eskin's house, a book entitled "Communist" by Vedat Türkali was confiscated and evaluated as proof that Eskin was involved in "organizational activities".
Lawyer Özan Kılıç, DİHA's legal advisor, indicated that some people tried to create false evidence. He emphasized that the relations to the journalists' news sources were protected. Lawyer Kılıç criticized, "A journalist who interviewed bin Laden is not asked why and how he talked to him". (EÖ/VK)
