Özgür Gündem trials: 'Solidarity became a reason for imprisonment'
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The second hearing of the retrial of three rights defenders in the Özgür Gündem newspaper case was held yesterday (September 30) at the İstanbul 12th Heavy Penal Court.
Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair Prof. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Turkey Representative Erol Önderoğlu were present in the courtroom while writer Ahmet Nesin did not attend the hearing.
The three people were acquitted of changes in July 2019 in the trial for participating in the "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign in solidarity with the now-shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem. Their acquittals were overturned in November 2020.
Özgür Gündem's then managing editor responsible for legal affairs, İnan Kızılkaya, who was going to be heard as a witness, was not able to attend the hearing because he had contact with a Covid-19 patient.
Önderoğlu and Korur-Fincancı said at the hearing that they had nothing to add to their previous defense statements. Attorneys demanded the elimination of deficiencies.
Announcing its interim decision, the court ruled that a letter should be sent to Nesin's address abroad and Kızılkaya should be heard in the next hearing, which it scheduled for February 1, 2022.
Demonstration before hearing
Before the hearing, a demonstration was held in front of the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan in support of the three defendants.
The Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT), Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Branch, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the European Union Delegation to Turkey, Confederation of Public Employees' Unions (KESK) Co-Chair Mehmet Bozgeyik, Journalists' Union of Turkey Chair Gökhan Durmuş, the Academics for Peace, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Provincial Organization, and MPs of the CHP and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were among those who attended the demonstration.
"A case dragging on for five years"
Speaking to the press, Korur-Fincancı likened the trial that has been going on for five years to Kafka's The Trial.
"What are we struggling for? To build our words, to be humans, for humanity and we don't give up this struggle. The proof that we don't give up is our friends who are here with us.
"In this country, the arson and bombing of Özgür Gündem newspaper, slaughter of journalists in 'identified' murders were not investigated, but standing by them was subject to an investigation. It was even regarded as a reason for arrest and was the reason for imprisonment for some of us."
Korur-Fincancı further noted that those who stood trial for participating in the Özgür Gündem solidarity campaign have stood trial separately and faced "different punishments for the same crime of solidarity."
"But it's clear that we didn't give up the struggle. We have the will to continue this struggle until words are free in this land, until the people are free and until we build our words more strongly for our rights," she remarked."
Önderoğlu: What we did was solidarity
Summarizing the trial process, RSF's Önderoğlu noted that the verdicts of acquittal were overturned after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements targeting the Turkish Medical Association.
"After being defendants for five years, it is difficult for us to expect the court to end this trial in a second acquittal. We want to be acquitted because what we did was to showing solidarity with a newspaper but considering Turkey's issue with judicial independence, it is not easy to wish that today with the thoughts that a president can interfere with a criminal case.
"I don't consider myself much of a defendant in a case that has slipped away from the legal ground. We may be convicted, we may be acquitted, but the hard decision here is that of prosecutors and judges working at this courthouse.
"We will, of course, continue our struggle for transparency, media freedom and the freedom of speech of every single citizen in Turkey. If everyone has a job, this has been our job for the past 25-30 years."
After the demonstration, Korur-Fincancı and Önderoğlu entered the courthouse with applause from the crowd.
Özgür Gündem TrialsThe Editors-in-Chief on Watch campaign of Özgür Gündem daily began on May 3, 2016 and ended on August 7, 2016. The newspaper was closed by the Statutory Decree No. 675 issued under the State of Emergency. Investigations were filed against 49 of 56 editors-in-chief on watch, 11 of them have ended in verdicts of non-prosecution and 38 files have turned into lawsuits. Relying on the Articles 7(2) and 6(2) of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713, the 38 Editors-in-Chief on Watch stood trial on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and for "publishing and spreading statements of terrorist organizations. Cases in which court ruled no prosecutionİhsan Eliaçık, Sebahat Tuncel, Ahmet Abakay, Eşber Yağmurdereli, Hasip Kaplan, Işın Eliçin, Kemal Can, Mustafa Sönmez, Melda Onur, Uğur Karadaş, Nurcan Baysal. 1 of 38 cases droppedLawsuits were filed against 38 people, one of them has dropped. That is, as the charges brought against Deniz Türkali violated statutory limitations, they have been dropped. 188 months, 15 days in prison and 67 thousand TRY fineIn the trial of Editors-in-Chief on Watch, the court has announced its ruling on 34 people, namely: Şanar Yurdatapan, İbrahim Bodur, Cengiz Baysoy, Hüseyin Tahmaz, Çilem Küçükkeleş, Nadire Mater, Yıldırım Türker, Hasan Cemal, Faruk Balıkçı, Dicle Anter, Derya Okatan, Kumru Başer, Ayşe Batumlu, Jülide Kural, Murat Uyurkulak, Murat Çelikkan, Beyza Üstün, Nevin Erdemir, Hakkı Boltan, Hasan Hayri Şanlı, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Hüseyin Aykol, Ayşe Düzkan, Ragıp Duran, Öncü Akgül, İhsan Çaralan, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Celal Başlangıç, Celalettin Can, Fehim Işık and Faruk Eren. 7 acquittalsThe court has given a ruling of acquittal for the following 7 people: Erol Önderoğlu, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Ahmet Nesin, Hasan Hayri Şanlı, Nevin Erdemir, Hüseyin Tahmaz and Hakkı Boltan. 27 people sentenced to 293 months, 15 days in total27 people have been sentenced to 67 thousand TRY and 293 months and 15 days.
Cases of 3 people still continueCan Dündar, Said Sefa and Veysi Alta Kızılkaya's casesÖzgür Gündem Managing Editor İnan Kızılkaya is defendant in all 38 cases. His case was separated from the others in the trials together with the other Editors-in-Chief on Watch. İstanbul 23rd Heavy Criminal Court is combining Kızılkaya's case with the main trial. Lawsuits against 9 columnistsLawsuits were filed against the columnists of the newspaper Ömer Ağın, İmam Canpolat, İlham Bakır, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir, Veysel Kemer, Yüksel Oğuz, Dilşah Kocakaya, Mehmet Ali Çelebi and Hüseyin Bektaş. Dilşah Kocakaya, İmam Canpolat and İlham Bakır have been sentenced to 15 months in prison each. While the prison term of Bakır has been deferred, those of Canpolat and Kocakaya have not been. Mehmet Ali Çelebi and Hüseyin Bektaş have been each sentenced to 1 year, 6 months in prison. The prison sentences have not been deferred. Özgür Gündem main trialIn the main trial, Özgür Gündem Consultant Board members Necmiye Alpay, Aslı Erdoğan, Ragıp Zarakolu, Filiz Koçali, Eren Keskin, Editors-in-Chief Zana Kaya, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Sancılı and Bilge Oykut are standing trial. In the hearing of the main trial held on April 10, 2019, the board of the İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court ruled that Kemal Sancılı, the Grant Holder of the newspaper, should be released as he was convicted and sentenced to prison in another trial heard by the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court. Sancılı is still behind bars. Moreover, while Eren Keskin is standing trial in 47 cases as the former permanent Editor-in Chief of Özgür Gündem, Hüseyin Aykol is standing trial in 38 cases as the former permanent Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. |
(HA/VK)