Minister of the Interior Şahin criticized the news about Cengiz who was beaten by the police. According to the minister, this was a single incident and the news was exaggerated. He questioned, "What do you want? Should I put up the gallows and hang my personnel?"

The fourth hearing of the "Everybody is born as a baby" trial against Savda, Aydemir and Atak, supporters of conscientious objector Aydemir, was held on 14 December. The defendants' request to consult a gynaecologist on the topic was dismissed.

Birgün reporter Aşam was sentenced to one year in jail on the grounds of supportive information of a news item published in January this year. Her signature was not under the main news but under a box with additional information.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Mijatovic paid her first official visit to Turkey to talk to government officials about media freedom. Prior to the talks she attended a panel of the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences on freedom of expression.

117 students of the Middle East Technical University stand trial in the context of a protest action against the government and YÖK. The students put forward that they used their legal right to attend the related press release. The trial will be continued on 16 March.

Seven investigation and two trials were opened against Kurdish singer Ferhat Tunç by reason of speeches made during the run-up to the general election in June. Tunç claims his speeches were peaceful messages and did not intend to encourage the people to rebellion.

BDP Deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü and CHP MP Şafak Pavey launched a discussion in Parliament upon their statements on the European Union and Cyprus. Kürkçü said that the Kurdish question and Cyprus were the fundamental problems of the country that needed to be discussed to find a solution.

According to a study into the "Use of the Internet and Social Media" of the KONDA research company, 57 percent of the Turkish population do not use the internet at all. 41 percent deems it harmful and the section of society using it the least is the electorate of the AKP.

In 2004, two members of the National Intelligence Agency allegedly gave slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink a lesson on where his place was at a meeting at the Governor's Office. The related investigation was now time-barred.

The ECHR ruled for a violation of the right to life in the case of the alleged suicide of Ekrem Kurt during his military service. His family will receive compensation from the Turkish government.

In a joint statement issued during the human rights week, the human rights associations TİHV and İHD noted that custodies and arrests of the investigations into the KCK, the Hopa incidents and the Revolutionary Headquarter reached massive dimensions.

Conscientious objector Halil Savda was released after he gave his statement to the prosecutor. He had been taken into custody at the airport in Istanbul when he was about to follow an invitation of Amnesty International to Paris.

Conscientious objector İnan Süver was released after 16 months in prison. His sentence was postponed. Süver told bianet that he was extremely happy to be part of the social life again after his release.

All 22 detained defendants of the Hopa trial in Ankara were released pending trial at the hearing on 9 December. A total of 28 defendants are tried on the grounds of protests against massive police interventions against anti-government demonstrations in Hopa in May.

About 50 journalists and intellectuals sold the Özgür Gündem newspaper on Human Rights day in Istanbul to speak up for press freedom and freedom of expression.

In her preliminary report based on a visit to Turkey in October, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers urged for the effective independence and impartiality of judges, prosecutors and lawyers and an accelerated implementation of these reforms.

Mahmut Alınak was arrested again together with Mehmet Ayata, Yalçın Sarıtaş and Sebahat Zeynep Arat upon the prosecutor's appeal. They were taken to a prison in Istanbul. Alınak had initially been released pending trial after the KCK operation on 22 November.

The General Staff Presidency denied the alleged use of chemical weapons. Pursuant to the statement, the Turkish Armed Forces do not hold chemical weapons and ammunition in their inventory.

Journalist Nedim Şener was acquitted in a trial related to the Ergenekon investigation. Charges of breaching the confidentiality of the Ergenekon investigation had been pressed against the detained journalist.

At the 28th hearing of the Diyarbakır KCK trial, the court rejected the transfer of the case to another province and accepted the request to have the defendants appear at court altogether. The next hearing was set for 12 December.