Listening to Radio Prohibited in Kırıkkale Prison

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The court has ruled on Mehmet Reşit Arslan’s application, whose radio, his only connection to the world outside of prison had been seized.

 The court has decided in its verdict published in the Official Gazette yesterday (April 11) that Arslan’s freedom of expression had not been violated.

Judge member Engin Yıldırım on the other hand has voted against the decision and noted that “The freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 26 of the Constitution had been violated”.

Reason: Long-wave radio

Arslan had been sentenced to “attempt to separate parts of the lands under the svay of the state from state administration” on March 6, 2000 by the now-closed İstanbul 3rd State Security Court

His radio, which he has said to have bought from the canteen of the prison five years ago, had been seized on January 25, 2013.

The prison administration has explained Arslan that “the radio was seized as it was a long-wave radio”.

Arslan in response has made an application to the Kırıkkale Enforcement Court requesting to be given back his radio after having its long-way function removed.

Court: “Does it have cell phone function?”

Kırıkkale Enforcement Court has rejected the application on February 21, 2013 with its following decision:

“ [...] even if the long-wave radio should be returned to its owner after expert examining; in case of an expert examination to determine whether the radio had camera, mp3 player, voice and video recorder and memory card, photograph and cell phone functions, there would be a risk that the radio would break down and the expert costs would exceed the value of the radio”.

“I had been using the radio for five years”

Arslan had made an appeal to the Constitutional Court on April 22, 2013 on grounds of the following:

“Arbitrary prohibition of possessing various articles by the administration of Kırıkkale F-type Prison, frequent searches in the rooms and thereby messing up all the belongings, seizure of various articles obtained from the canteen of the prison premises in these searches including the radio which had been under [applicant’s ] possession for five years, not returning the radio despite his requests, and violation of [applicant’s] right to property, education, fair trial, and information as well as his liberties [...]”.   

“An inevitable conclusion of being in prison”

The Constitutional Court in its verdict has decided that there was no doubt that Arslan having a long-wave radio would fall under the scope of the right to have access to news and information yet has added that this right can be restricted:

“In case of presence of acceptable necessity with regards to preserving safety and order in the prison such as prevention of crime, providing discipline, the rights of the prisoners can be restricted as an inevitable conclusion of being in prison. (AS/DG)