Journalist Aygün sentenced to prison over a tweet

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

Journalist Hakan Aygün has been sentenced to 7 months, 15 days in prison over a tweet criticizing the fundraising campaign launched by President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

After Erdoğan had asked citizens to put money into a bank account, giving an international bank account number (IBAN), a tweet was posted from Aygün's account, making a wordplay with IBAN and "iman," which means "faith" in Turkish and mostly used in a religious context. The tweet referred to an imaginary "IBAN section" of the Quran, saying that those who "IBAN" and those who "don't IBAN" would be "separated in the afterlife."

In a recent ruling, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the rights of Aygün, who was briefly arrested over the tweet, were violated and ruled that he shall be paid 40 thousand lira in non-pecuniary damages.

CLICK - Ruling of right violation for journalist's arrest over a tweet

The last hearing of the lawsuit filed into the tweet was held at the Bodrum 3rd Penal Court of First Instance today (March 16).

Making his defense as to the accusations, Aygün reiterated his previous defense and demanded his acquittal of the offense charged.

Indicating that he does not accept the prosecutor's final opinion as to the accusations, Hakan Aygün briefly said:

"There are no contradictions between my statements. But there might be differences because my statements were taken down deficiently. I made a detailed statement in my written petition.

"Moreover, I can prepare the print-outs of the related social media posts as if they had been shared by the court board and present it to your court. I do not think that screenshots and photos can be regarded as evidence. I think that the related case is a political case."

Handing down its ruling after Hakan Aygün's defense, the court board has ruled that the journalist shall be sentenced to 7 months, 15 days in prison on charge of "publicly degrading the religious values held by a segment of the society" as per the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

While the prison sentence has been deferred, Aygün has announced that he will appeal against the ruling. Aygün has written:

"Despite the Constitutional Court ruling and the fact that it has not been identified whether I tweeted the IBAN section tweet, a prison sentence of 7 months, 15 days has been given, the execution of the sentence has been deferred. Legal remedies are available; the end is definite: The Constitutional Court, if not, the ECtHR. Here is my dear country..." (HA/SD)