New lawsuit against journalist who photographed Kemal Kurkut’s moment of killing

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A new indictment has been brought against journalist Abdurrahman Gök, who photographed the moment when Kemal Kurkut was shot to death by police during the Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır in 2017.

Charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and "being a member of the organization" in his trial at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court, Gök faced a criminal complaint at his previous hearing on September 30, 2021. This complaint has become an indictment.

The indictment has been merged with the current court case. At the hearing held in Diyarbakır today (January 20), the presiding judge asked journalist Gök whether he would make defense as to the new indictment that has been merged with the file of the current court case.

Gök said that he has not yet been notified of the new indictment and that he will make defense after receiving it. A judge from the court board intervened in Gök's statement and argued that he could make defense as "he actually knows the content of the new indictment." Gök reiterated that he will present his statement of defense as to the new indictment after examining it.

Taking the floor afterwards, lawyer Resul Tamur requested time from the court board to make defense as to the new indictment. The court adjourned the trial until March 31, 2022 by giving time to journalist Abdurrahman Gök and his lawyer to prepare their statements of defense.

What does the new indictment say?

The new indictment contains the news Gök reported from North and East Syria. The related news reports also have pictures of People's Defense Units (YPG) members. It is now cited as criminal evidence that Gök shared these pictures in five different posts on Twitter and Instagram in 2017-2019. He faces up to 7.5 years in prison for "terror propaganda".

What happened?

Journalist Abdurrahman Gök photographed the moment when university student Kemal Kurkut was shot to death by the police on March 21, 2017 during the Newroz celebrations in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

Eight days later, on March 29, he went to the Diyarbakır Courthouse with his lawyer and gave his statement to the Public Prosecutor who was conducting the investigation into the incident. Upon the prosecutor's request, the 26 photos that he had taken were also submitted to the office.

On April 20, the police raided the house of Gök in Diyarbakır's Bağlar, searched the house where he was not present at the time of the raid, seized four books, one magazine and two phones not used by him.

Afterwards, a lawsuit was filed against Gök over his phone conversations, social media posts and news; he faced 7 years to 20 years in prison.

Gök was granted the "Metin Göktepe Journalism Awards - Jury Special Award" thanks to his related photograph. (HA/SD)