Journalist to be Retried Under Article 301

The Supreme Court of Appeals had sentenced journalist Emin Karaca to five months in prison, later converted to a fine of 900 YTL, for criticizing the army. Now he is to be retried.

Remembering Deniz Gezmis

Karaca had written an article in the magazine "Yazin" which appears in Turkey and Europe, remembering the anniversary of the execution of three leftist militants, Deniz Gezmis, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin Inan.

In his article printed in the April 2002 issue of the magazine, Karaca had written about the execution of the three young men 30 years earlier. He accused the army of being involved in murders since the 1960s.

Procedural error causes retrial

Karaca had been tried under Article 301/2, for "insulting and deriding the armed forces". In the trial, which had begun in November 2002, editor Mehmet Emin Sert had been acquitted, and the editor-in-chief Doğan Özgüden has not been tried because he lives in Belgium.

However, because of a procedural error (a missing signature), Karaca will be retried. The new trial is to start on 20 June, in a penal court in Istanbul.

The international group Reporters Sans Frontieres had written a letter to the then-Minister of Justice, Aysel Celikel at the time of the first trial to protest against the case. (EÖ/EÜ/AG/EÜ)