Journalist Zengin in Detention for another 6 Months

Suzan Zengin, journalist and interpreter at the Işçi-Köylü (Workers-Peasants) newspaper, had her first hearing on Thursday (26 August) after one year in detention. bianet talked to her lawyer, Gül Altay. She said that their request to release Zengin pending trial was dismissed despite a lack of concrete evidence.

The Beşiktaş (Istanbul) 10^th High Criminal Court postponed the case to 15 February 2011.

Zengin stands accused of "membership of an illegal organization". She was detained on 28 August 2009.

Altay stated that they were going to appeal against the continued detention. The lawyer pointed out the following problems regarding the indictment:

No connections to the other defendants: The prosecution is concerned with the raid on a tea house and Molotov cocktails that were found in a vacant building. Five young defendants are in detention and two are being searched. The defendants state that they have no connections at all with Suzan Zengin and that they do not know her. In addition, the raid on the tea house, which Zengin herself has nothing to do with, was not carried out because of "organized crime" but was a judicial issue.

No concrete evidence: The evidence brought up against Zengin stems from telephone conversations she made as an interpreter or for the newspaper with union presidents, representatives of the Işçi-Köylü newspaper or publishers of other magazines. None of these phone talks contain any element of crime, they are not related to the incidents.

No new evidence since Zengin was detained: As one reason for the dismissal of the demand for her release the court mentioned the possibility of concealing evidence. Lawyer Altay on the other hand indicated that no new evidence was added to the file ever since the detention and since the file was given a classified status. (TK/VK)