Article 159 Remains Always a Serious Threat

The trial against Dogan Özgüden, Info-Turk chief editor, and his two colleagues for "insulting the Turkish Army" continued on June 4, 2003, at the Penal Court of First Instance N°1 in Istanbul.

In absence of Özgüden, the court decided to deliver to all border check points a third warrant ordering them to arrest Özgüden and to hand over him immediately to the justice when he returns to Turkey.

At the trial, the judge declared that the court finally received from the Population Department Özgüden's registers of birth.

However, the full first name of the accused being "Dogangün" according to the birth certificate, the judge asked the public prosecutor to establish a new indictment on the name of "Dogangün Özgüden" and to make bring the penal records established on this name. He also decided to establish a third warrant of arrest to be sent to the border posts on the name "Dogangün Özgüden".

The trial was reported to October 15, 2003.

In this case, the public prosecutor claims a prison term of up to six years against Dogan Özgüden and Emin Karaca, for the articles that they had written to the review Türkiye'de ve Avrupa'da Yazin (Literature in Turkey and Europe) at the 30th anniversary of the execution of three leaders of progressive youth by the military junta. As for the editor responsible for the review, Mehmet Emin Sert, he risks a heavy fine for having published these articles.

The lawsuit was launched by virtue of Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code. This article is applicable to any criticism against the Army, the government and the security forces if it is considered "insult" by the prosecutor. In spite of the promise of the Turkish government to modify the penal legislation in accordance with the criteria of Copenhagen, Article 159 of the TPC does not appear yet among the articles to be removed.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, at its plenary meeting on January 28, 2003, adopted a recommendation on the freedom of expression in the media in Europe. After having noted that "legal proceedings against journalists continue in Turkey", the European assembly gave as example the lawsuit brought against Özgüden and his two colleagues in Turkey.

In addition, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) immediately protested against the indictment of the three journalists. "If these journalists are condemned for insult to the army, Turkey will betray the commitments which it undertook towards the European Union", declared Robert Ménard, secretary-general of RSF, in a letter addressed to the Turkish Minister for Justice.

Reacting against Özgüden's indictment in Turkey, the National Secretary of the General Association of the Professional journalists of Belgium (AGJPB), Martine Simonis, sent a message of protest to the Turkish Minister of Justice and to Louis Michel, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Louis Michel had answered the letter of Simonis on January 23, 2003, in these terms: "I entirely share your concern and I regret noting that Turkey still carries out lawsuits against the freedom of expression. According to informations obtained by my services, the risk of imprisonment is limited for the interested party, since there is no international warrant of arrest launched against him in the pending case. However, the risk undoubtedly remains for earlier cases against him. I asked our ambassador in Ankara to follow closely this specific case of Mr. Özgüden."

In a communiqué of April 11, 2003, the Brussels Center for Intercultural Action (CBAI) expressed "its concern and its dissatisfaction to see one of its founder members, Dogan Özgüden, is pursued by Turkish justice because of its articles."

"The direction and the board of directors of the CBAI wish to recall that Özgüden, also editor of the review Info-Türk, has largely contributed to the CBAI today, by providing a precise and qualified lighting on the realities faced by the Turkish community of Belgium as those faced in Turkey. He has effectively played an important role in the cultural exchange between the Belgian society and the Turkish population living in our country. For this reason, the CBAI asked Mr. Louis Michel, Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, to make what is in its capacity so that this militant of long date, keen partisan of dialogue, can exert freely and in serenity his missions," the CBAI said.

The new warrant of arrest of June 4, 2003, against Özgüden shows that Turkish justice does not give heed to international reactions.

Moreover, during April, May and June 2003, many newspapers were confiscated, journalists and artists harassed, TV and radio broadcastings prohibited or suspended by Turkish justice. (See: http://www.info-turk.be and http://www.info-turk.be/bulletins.htm)

Who is Ozguden

Özgüden, 67, began to work as journalist on September 9, 1952 in Izmir. After having worked at the newspapers Ege Günesi, Sabah Postasi, Milliyet and Öncü in Izmir, and Gece Postasi and Sosyal Adalet in Istanbul, he directed as chief editor and main editorial writer of the most important left-wing daily Aksam (1964-66) and the socialist review Ant (1967-71).

Özgüden and his wife, Inci Tugsavul, were accused more than 50 times of having committed "crime of opinion" in the articles that they wrote or published in the review Ant. Threatened by a total of more than 300-year imprisonment, they had to leave Turkey after the military coup of 1971.

Since 1974, they edit in Brussels the Info-Türk Agency which informs the world opinion of the situation of human rights in Turkey. http://www.info-turk.be

Özgüden and Tugsavul, along with more than 200 other opponents of the regime in exile, were deprived of their Turkish nationality in 1982 because of their criticisms against the military junta. Although this decision was annulled after ten years, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has never answered to the demand that a written guarantee be given them that they would not be indicted or imprisoned for the accusations that the same ministry communicated earlier to the European Human Rights Commission.

One of the former leading members of the Association of Journalists (GC), the Trade Union of Journalists (TGS) and the Ethical Council of the Press(BSD) in Turkey , Özgüden is now a member of the Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC), the Association of Professional Journalists of Belgium (AGJPB), the Human Rights League of Belgium (LDDH) and the Movement Against Racism and Xenophobia (MRAX).

He is author of many books, mainly On Fascism (1965, Istanbul), On Capitalism (1966, Istanbul), File on Turkey (1972, France), Fascism and Resistance in Turkey (1973, The Netherlands), Mass media and Turkish Migrants (Belgium, 1983), The Portrait of Turkish Migration (Belgium, 1984), Black Book on the Militarist "Democracy" in Turkey (Belgium, 1986), Extreme Right in Turkey (Belgium, 1988(NM)