Cumhuriyet Columnist Acquitted of 'Terrorist Propaganda'

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Işıl Özgentürk, a columnist for daily Cumhuriyet and a film director, has been acquitted in the second hearing of a case against herself for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization."

The case was filed against Özgentürk over social media posts where she posted two photographs, one of which was from a trip to the Kurdish-majority southeast in 2015.

In one photograph, she was dancing on her birthday, and in the other, she was performing a regional folk dance with the "white-veiled women," she told bianet ahead of the first hearing in December 2019.

Charging Özgentürk with "continuous propaganda for a terrorist organization," the prosecutor's office requested a prison sentence of 1.5 to 7.5 years. It cited posts shared on April 4 and September 6, 2015 as evidence.

Anti-Terror Law Article 7/2

Any person making propaganda for a terrorist organisation shall be punished with imprisonment fromone to five years. If this crime is committed through means of mass media, the penalty shall be aggravated by one half.

In her statement of defense as to the accusations, Özgentürk said, "I am very sorry, especially after what the prosecutor said about me. I wish I weren't a journalist, I would remain insensitive about my country's problems. I am a patriot."

Saying that it was very hard for her to be "associated with a terrorist organization," Özgentürk remarked, "I am 73 years old. I have been a journalist for 50 years, I have been directing plays."

"If I wanted to go abroad during the September 12 [1980 coup], I could go. But I didn't, I can't live in another country. How can I defend the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] terrorist organization?

"I am peaceful, a patriot, I am against child marriages. You can punish me because of these but not because of PKK."

The court board, with a majority vote, decided to acquit the journalist.

About Işıl Özgentürk

Journalist, film director and playwright.

She took part as an actress and a playwright in the Movement for Revolution Theater, which was founded in 1968 and shut down in 1971.

In the following years, she wrote columns and made interviews for daily Cumhuriyet.

She has written more than 20 books plays and screenplays since 1980.

She graduated from İstanbul University Faculty of Economics. She was born in the southeastern Antep province on September 19, 1948.

(TP/VK)