Sentence to politician for misrepresenting Kurdish lawyer as attacker in İstiklal bombing

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A prison sentence of 4 years and 5 months was given to Adem Taşkaya, a member of the Victory (Zafer) Party, who after the bomb attack that killed 6 people on the İstiklal Avenue in Taksim, İstanbul on November 13, portrayed lawyer Jiyan Tosun as the attacker. 

Taşkaya was standing trial for insulting and disseminating private information unlawfully. He received the prison sentence in the first hearing of the case yesterday (May 30). 

In the hearing, Taşkaya told the court that he is the Vice President of the party responsible for software and information and that he received the information from their Telegram group. 

Jiyan Tosun was present in the hearing together with her lawyers Eren Keskin and Jiyan Kaya, and Taşkaye came to the courtroom with his lawyer Mert Aydemir. 

In the hearing, Taşkaya said, "The photograph was that of the real bomber, and it is by mistake that I shared the name of the complainant in my tweet. When I learned that this information was not correct, I wanted to delete it but I was not able to do it because there was bandwidth throttling." 

Taşkaya also claimed that he had a limited chance of confirming the information he received since he was not a public servant. 

“For 4 weeks, I was not able to go home ”

Jiyan Tosun also addressed the court. She said that threatening messages were sent to her and her family during the time, which said, "You are bombers so we are also going to explode you." 

Tosun said that Taşkaya shared this post with her name only because she had a Kurdish name and that her personal information, such as her telephone number and address was also circulated on social media.

"I was not able to go to my house for four weeks after the event. The suspect is saying that he is an information expert. He had to know how widespread disinformation is on social media and act accordingly. I was not able to go home, but Taşkaya shared a post with his children on his social media a day later. Therefore I believe that he has done this deliberately, and I want him to be punished for the crime," Tosun said. 

Tosun's lawyer Eren Keskin also took the floor, recalling that Ümit Özdağ, the president of the Victory Party had links with the intelligence service she said, "We believe that he received the [personal] information from the police." Keskin requested that the court should investigate the groups this information was shared in. She also requested that the court should try Taşkaya not for "insult" but for the offense of "aggravated threat."

Taşkaya, on the other hand, told the court that “The act was that was made by mistake. It was not political or racist" 

The prosecutor argued that Taşkaya was guilty of insult, since he shared Tosun's photograph and wrote "A lawyer who is a member of PKK," and evaluated sharing the information that Tosun is a lawyer as "disseminating private information unlawfully." 

While Taşkaya denied the accusations, Tosun's lawyers requested that the suspect should be tried for "publicly dissemination information misleading the people," according to article 217/A of the Turkish Criminal Code. 

The court announced its decision and sentenced Taşkaya to 1 year 11 months and 10 days of imprisonment for "insulting," and 2 years, and 6 months of imprisonment for "delivering or obtaining data illegally." 

The court has not suspended the verdict, if approved by the superior court Taşkaya will be put in prison. 

What happened?

İstanbul prosecutors have indicted a member of the Victory (Zafer) Party for falsely accusing a Kurdish lawyer of perpetrating the November 13 İstanbul bombing, which killed six people and injured 81 others.

The Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has charged Adem Taşkaya with "insulting a person by means of an audio, written or video message" and "illegally obtaining and disseminating personal data," Halk TV reported today (January 5). If found guilty, Taşkaya may receive a prison sentence of up to four years.

Hours after the bombing, Taşkaya had shared a still image showing Jiyan Tosun, a Kurdish lawyer and a member of the Human rights Association (İHD), on İstiklal Avenue, where the bomb had exploded and claimed that it was her who planted the bomb.

Tosun soon proved that she was at a police station with her client at the time of the bombing. Still, she was harassed and threatened by many people on social media. Worried about her security, she spent hours at the courthouse in Küçükçekmece, where she went to file a complaint.

At a press conference the next day, Tosun said she and her relatives had also received threats by phone, questioning how so many people could obtain their number in a very short time.

(HA/PE)