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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has given a decision of rejection of venue for Rûdaw reporter Rawin Sterk, who was arrested on March 6 while reporting on the situation of refugees on Turkey-Greece border in Edirne after Turkey announced that it opened the border to Europe.
With this decision of rejection of venue, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has sent his file to İstanbul.
Taken into custody in Edirne, Sterk was taken to the capital city of Ankara on March 3, accompanied by Ankara Anti-Terror Branch officers. While a confidentiality order was issued for his file, he was then arrested on charge of "propagandizing for an organization."
Rawin Sterk has been arrested pending trial for almost five months now; however, there has yet been no indictment against him.
Sercan Korkmaz, the attorney of Sterk, has spoken to Cansu Pişkin from Expression Interrupted and announced that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has given a decision of rejection of venue, sent the file to İstanbul and left all objections and applications unanswered.
'Arrested as part of an investigation dated 2008'
Korkmaz has reminded that Sterk was detained during news follow-up: "While journalists from all media outlets of Turkey were reporting on the humanitarian hardships suffered by refugees while trying to cross the Edirne border, the gendarmerie - for some reason - detained Rawin for an alleged border violation and referred him to prosecutor's office."
Noting that border violation is not an offense that will require arrest, attorney Korkmaz has briefly added the following:
"The Prosecutor's Office of Edirne apparently knew it as well because it referred Rawin to Ankara based on an investigation file which was opened against him in 2008 and kept waiting with no progres.
"As for the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor, it examined the social media account of Rawin, as it could not find any evidence against him in an investigation that had been freezed in a sense, and based on these social media posts, it demanded his penalization."
'His arrest has turned into execution'
Korkmaz has underlined that the arrest of Rawin Sterk without an indictment or conviction for almost five months has turned into execution:
"The arrest of Rawin is one of the most clear examples of what journalism is faced with in Turkey. He is facing charges over his social media messages, which is supposed to be within the scope of freedom of thought and expression in the first place. It is already in the investigation file.
"The failure to file an indictment against him for months while there is no further evidence to collect is an example of unlawfulness in itself. The petition of objection that I submitted against his arrest in May was taken into account one month later and responded just then.
"If we assume that Rawin will be penalized on the offense charged, he has already spent his possible prison term behind bars, which is the most tragic of all. After all these, even if he is released or put on trial and acquitted, he has paid the price for doing journalism in Turkey in the heaviest way possible." (HA/SD)
