Prison Sentences for Commemorating 12-Year Old Kaymaz

The Diyarbakır 6^th High Criminal Court handed down a one-year prison sentence each to six people who were tried on the grounds of commemorating Ahmet and Uğur Kaymaz. Kaymaz and his twelve-year old son Uğur were killed by the police in Kızıltepe in the southern province of Mardin in November 2004. Uğur's uncle Reşat Kaymaz is one of the people convicted.

The six defendants had attended a commemoration ceremony for Ahmet and Uğur Kaymaz at the cemetery. They had put up posters of the father and the son and had organized a protest march from the city centre to their graves. They had a minute's silence in commemoration, sang Kurdish marches and shouted slogans such as "Uğur and Ahmet are in the grave, the murderers are out there". The court evaluated all this as "propaganda in favour of the PKK".

As reported by Günlük newspaper, the court board ruled for the acquittal of five defendants. Fara Akbulut, Deniz Yüksel, Engin Ayaydın, Adil Başaran, Reşat Kaymaz and Hasan Budak were each sentenced to imprisonment of one year according to article 7 of the Anti-Terror Law.

The defendants did not attend the hearing and were notified via mail later on. (EÖ/VK)