Prof. Korur-Fincancı fined for insulting Erdoğan in 2013 tweet

Photo: Evrensel

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Chair and rights defender Prof. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı has been sentenced to pay a monetary fine for insulting then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2013.

A lawsuit was filed against Korur-Fincancı because of a Twitter message about Erdoğan during the countrywide Gezi Park protest against his government in 2013.

She was charged with insulting a public official.

Korur-Fincancı and her attorney Meriç Eyüboğlu were present at the final hearing of the case at the İstanbul 42nd Penal Court of First Instance today (February 16).

Presenting her statement of defense against the prosecutor's opinion, Korur-Fincancı said, "There is not an insult but the truth. Because when I posted that tweet on June 15, 2013, we had lost eight people in Turkey during the Gezi period," she said, according to Evrensel.

"More than 10 people lost vision and thousands were seriously injured. At the time, I was the chairperson of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV/HRFT).

"At the same time, I was working at mobile infirmaries formed by the medical chambers to contribute to the treatment of people who had health problems.

"While I was on duty at the İstanbul Medical Chamber's infirmaries, law enforcement officers directly fired gas canisters into the infirmary in targeted fires. They saw people getting treated, it was fired from such a close distance.

"A few days before, the then-prime minister said, 'I gave the orders, our police have made history.' The police's duty is not to injure, kill or make [people] blind. For this reason, I demand my acquittal."

In the tweet in question, Korur-Fincancı had written, "RTE gave the order for the massacre and the police is performing it with heart and soul."

"Politicians had apologized at the time"

Speaking after her client, attorney Eyüboğlu noted that she is a forensic medicine expert specialized in torture cases and an internationally renowned scientist.

"My client is also working in the international field. She is among the team that prepared the UN's İstanbul Protocol [against torture]. I'm not saying this to tell that my client is a scientist but to express that she is scientifically a witness and observer of all these.

"We are standing trial because of a tweet posted in 2013. Maybe we will appear before you because of other tweets from that time as well. There were reports about rights violations in the period that the tweet was posted. The deaths that my client mentioned are included in all these reports.

"Then-Parliamentary Speaker Bülent Arınç and then-President Abdullah Gül also admitted these and apologized. Amnesty International reported that one-year [tear] gas stocks were depleted in 20 days.

"My client's post is within freedom of expression. For this reason, this is a trial of freedom of expression. Therefore, only the trial is a violation of the right to freedom of expression."

Asked by the presiding judge whether she would accept the deferral of the pronouncement of the verdict, Korur-Fincancı said, "I don't accept charges. If there is a sentence as a result of this, I don't accept that either. Therefore, I don't accept the deferral of the pronouncement of the verdict."

The court sentenced Korur-Fincancı to 7,080 lira (~1,010 USD) for insulting a public official.

Ahead of the hearing, several rights groups and political parties, including the TİHV, the Progressive Lawyers' Association (ÇHD), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the Academics for Peace, the Association for Equal Rights, the Retired Workers and the Kocaeli Solidarity Academy gathered in front of the İstanbul Courthouse to announce support for Korur-Fincancı.

Speaking here, she said, "Because Erdoğan said 'I gave the order,' we had written, 'RTE gave the order for the massacre and the police is performing it with heart and soul.' In fact, we had expressed the truth. Expressing the truth has long been a problem and a reason for punishment in this country."

About Şebnem Korur-Fincancı

Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı is a rights advocate, the chair of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and a board member of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV/HRFT).

The Foundation, which she also chaired until November 2020, has been involved in the documentation of the cases of torture, rehabilitation of its victims and provision of legal assistance to them.

Korur-Fincancı is also one of the founding members of the Forensic Doctors' Association and has played the major role in the development of the United Nations reference standards on the investigation and documentation of the cases of torture, the Istanbul Protocol.

She has conducted forensic investigations to expose torture in multiple countries and in 2014 she received the International Hrant Dink Award. She has also been one of the founders of the Turkish Penal Code Association.

Devoting her professional life to the investigation and documentation of torture as well as struggle against it, Korur-Fincancı has become one of the milestones in Turkey in that regard. Preparing reports on cases of torture and writing on medical ethics in the 1990s, when torture was prevalent in Turkey, she was met with the oppression and preventions by the state.

In 1997, she became the Head of Forensic Medicine Department at İstanbul University. In 2004, she was dismissed from this post. In 2005, she was reinstated by the Administrative Court and as per the decision of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

Şebnem Korur Fincancı also participated in the Editors-in-Chief on Watch campaign that was launched in solidarity with the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed as per a Statutory Decree. Korur Fincancı was arrested on June 20, 2016 for having participated in the campaign and was released on June 30, 2016.

(HA/VK)