Özgür Gündem trial: Prison sentences of 7 journalists upheld

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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The 3rd Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the court of appeals, has announced its ruling in the lawsuit filed against journalists and writers for having participated in the "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign in solidarity with the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed by a Statutory Decree on October 26, 2016.

The court of appeals has upheld the prison sentences of seven journalists and acquittal of four journalists.

Announcing its final ruling on April 3, 2019, the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled that Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Fehim Işık, Celal Başlangıç, İhsan Çaralan, Öncü Akgül and Celalettin Can should be sentenced to 1 year, 3 months in prison for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and Hüseyin Aykol, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, to 3 years, 9 months.

The court ruled that Ömer Ağın, Veysel Kemer, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir and Yüksel Oğuz should be acquitted of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization, inciting to commit crimes, praising the crime and criminal."

Appeals rejected on merits

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency, the court has rejected the appeals of Celalettin Can, Hüseyin Akyol, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Mehmet Fehim Işık, Mehmet Celal Başlangıç, Öncü Akgül and Dilşah Kocakaya against the their conviction of "terror propaganda" in following words:

"...on the grounds that there is no contrariety to law as to the procedure or merits in their conviction, there is no deficiency in evidence or proceedings, the evaluation of proof is sound, the action is defined correctly and overlaps with the type of crime foreseen in the law and the penalty is imposed within the legal context, the reasons put forward by the appealers are not found valid and their appeals have been rejected on merits as per the article 280/1-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK)..."

The court of appeals has also upheld the acquittal of Ömer Ağın, Veysel Kemer, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir and Yüksel Oğuz of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization, openly inciting to commit crimes and praising the crime and criminal; Celalettin Can of openly inciting to commit crimes, praising the crime and criminal, propagandizing for a terrorist organization; and Hüseyin Aykol of "targeting persons who were on duty in fight against terrorism."

Özgür Gündem Trials

The Editors-in-Chief on Watch campaign of Özgür Gündem daily began on May 3, 2016 and ended on August 7, 2016. The newspaper was closed by the Statutory Decree No. 675 issued under the State of Emergency.

Investigations were filed against 49 of 56 editors-in-chief on watch, 11 of them have ended in verdicts of non-prosecution and 38 files have turned into lawsuits.

Relying on the Articles 7(2) and 6(2) of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713, the 38 Editors-in-Chief on Watch stood trial on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and for "publishing and spreading statements of terrorist organizations.

Cases in which court ruled no prosecution

İhsan Eliaçık, Sebahat Tuncel, Ahmet Abakay, Eşber Yağmurdereli, Hasip Kaplan, Işın Eliçin, Kemal Can, Mustafa Sönmez, Melda Onur, Uğur Karadaş, Nurcan Baysal.

1 of 38 cases dropped

Lawsuits were filed against 38 people, one of them has dropped. That is, as the charges brought against Deniz Türkali violated statutory limitations, they have been dropped.

188 months, 15 days in prison and 67 thousand TRY fine

In the trial of Editors-in-Chief on Watch, the court has announced its ruling on 34 people, namely: Şanar Yurdatapan, İbrahim Bodur, Cengiz Baysoy, Hüseyin Tahmaz, Çilem Küçükkeleş, Nadire Mater, Yıldırım Türker, Hasan Cemal, Faruk Balıkçı, Dicle Anter, Derya Okatan, Kumru Başer, Ayşe Batumlu, Jülide Kural, Murat Uyurkulak, Murat Çelikkan, Beyza Üstün, Nevin Erdemir, Hakkı Boltan, Hasan Hayri Şanlı, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Hüseyin Aykol, Ayşe Düzkan, Ragıp Duran, Öncü Akgül, İhsan Çaralan, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Celal Başlangıç, Celalettin Can, Fehim Işık and Faruk Eren.

7 acquittals

The court has given a ruling of acquittal for the following 7 people: Erol Önderoğlu, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Ahmet Nesin, Hasan Hayri Şanlı, Nevin Erdemir, Hüseyin Tahmaz and Hakkı Boltan.

27 people sentenced to 293 months, 15 days in total

27 people have been sentenced to 67 thousand TRY and 293 months and 15 days.

Murat Çelikkan, whose prison term was not deferred, entered Kırklareli Prison on August 14, 2017, was transferred to open prison on October 14, 2017 and released on October 21, 2017.
Ayşe Düzkan, the editor-in-chief on watch whose prison term was not deferred, was imprisoned on January 29, 2019 as the Court of Appeal upheld her prison sentence. Taken to Bakırköy Women's Prison, Düzkan was released on June 12.
Özgür Gündem Editor-in-Chief Hüseyin Aykol was arrested on July 12, 2019 as he was convicted and sentenced to 3 years, 9 months in prison. Aykol was released on October 25, 2019.
Editors-in-Chief on Watch Erol Önderoğlu, Ahmet Nesin and Şebnem Korur Fincancı were arrested on June 20, 2016. They were released 10 days later.

Cases of 3 people still continue

Can Dündar, Said Sefa and Veysi Alta

Kızılkaya's cases

Özgür Gündem Managing Editor İnan Kızılkaya is defendant in all 38 cases. His case was separated from the others in the trials together with the other Editors-in-Chief on Watch. İstanbul 23rd Heavy Criminal Court is combining Kızılkaya's case with the main trial.

Lawsuits against 9 columnists

Lawsuits were filed against the columnists of the newspaper Ömer Ağın, İmam Canpolat, İlham Bakır, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir, Veysel Kemer, Yüksel Oğuz, Dilşah Kocakaya, Mehmet Ali Çelebi and Hüseyin Bektaş.

Dilşah Kocakaya, İmam Canpolat and İlham Bakır have been sentenced to 15 months in prison each. While the prison term of Bakır has been deferred, those of Canpolat and Kocakaya have not been. Mehmet Ali Çelebi and Hüseyin Bektaş have been each sentenced to 1 year, 6 months in prison. The prison sentences have not been deferred.

Özgür Gündem main trial

In the main trial, Özgür Gündem Consultant Board members Necmiye Alpay, Aslı Erdoğan, Ragıp Zarakolu, Filiz Koçali, Eren Keskin, Editors-in-Chief Zana Kaya, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Sancılı and Bilge Oykut are standing trial.

In the hearing of the main trial held on April 10, 2019, the board of the İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court ruled that Kemal Sancılı, the Grant Holder of the newspaper, should be released as he was convicted and sentenced to prison in another trial heard by the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court. Sancılı is still behind bars.

Moreover, while Eren Keskin is standing trial in 47 cases as the former permanent Editor-in Chief of Özgür Gündem, Hüseyin Aykol is standing trial in 38 cases as the former permanent Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper.

(EKN/SD)