Journalist Hakkı Boltan sentenced to prison for ‘insulting’ Erdoğan, Davutoğlu

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Journalist Hakkı Boltan has been sentenced to 2 years, 17 days in prison in total on charge of insult.

Boltan was on trial over his press statement in Kurdish, where he talked about Azadiya Welat newspaper's former Managing Editor Rohat Aktaş, who was wounded during news follow-up in Cizre district of Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak in the period of curfews in 2016 and killed in the basement of a building where he took shelter.

Holding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu responsible for what happened in Cizre and other cities in the region, Boltan has been sentenced to 2 years, 17 days in prison by the Diyarbakır 12th Penal Court of First Instance.

At the final hearing yesterday (June 29), the prosecutor of the hearing reiterated the final opinion as to the accusations from the previous hearing and demanded that Hakkı Boltan be penalized.

According to the prosecutor, Hakkı Boltan insulted Erdoğan and Davutoğlu by saying, "A great atrocity happened in Cizre, humanity was massacred before the eyes of the whole world. Upon the instruction of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the state powers are committing a dirty massacre under the name of clearing. And they are giving instructions to the press to cover up the dirty massacres."

Recalling that Davutoğlu was the Prime Minister when those remarks were made, the prosecutor demanded that Boltan be separately penalized for insulting the President and insulting Ahmet Davutoğlu.

'He reminded the state of its responsibility'

Taking the floor at the hearing, Resul Tamur, Hakkı Boltan's attorney, reminded the court board that when his client made that speech, he was the Chair of the Free Journalists Association, adding that due to intense pressure on journalists in that period, several journalists and journalism organizations came together and made press statements about the issue.

Referring to Hakkı Boltan's speech, attorney Resul Tamur noted that his client drew attention to the condition of wounded journalist Aktaş and said that an intervention was necessary, otherwise, the state authorities would be responsible. "The aim here was to remind the state officials of their responsibility, rather than to insult," underlined Resul Tamur further.

'It means silencing citizens'

Against this backdrop, attorney Tamur also referred to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and said that the remarks of Boltan fell within the scope of freedom of expression.

Saying that Turkey might be convicted if his client was penalized, Tamur added, "The related interference will solely mean taking the state authorities under protection from harsh criticism and silencing citizens in the face of this. We request the acquittal of the client."

Separate prison sentences

Handing down its judgement, the court board has ruled that Boltan shall be sentenced to 1 year, 2 months, 17 days in prison for "insulting the President" and 10 months in prison for "insulting" Davutoğlu. (HA/SD)