Three Journalists Pay for Kandil Feature

The Istanbul 10th Heavy Penal Court has sentenced "Hürriyet" journalist Sebati Karakurt to an advance payment of 455 YTL. Karakurt is being tried for an interview he did with Kurdish Kongra-Gel militants on Kandil Mountain in Northern Iraq. A prison sentence has been demanded. 

Editors also charged 

Hasan Kilic and Necdet Tatlican, responsible editors at the newspaper, have been sentenced to paying two thousand and a thousand daily fines, amounting to 40,000 YTL and 20,000 YTL in advance payments.

The charge is that of "publishing statements of a terrorist organisation" and "spreading propaganda of a terrorist organisation". There had been a disagreement over whether a penal or heavy penal court should deal with the case, so it was taken to the 5th Penal Department of the Court of Appeals.

Should the journalists not pay, their trials will continue on 13 November.

The feature in question, entitled "In Kandil feminism has gone beyond Kurdish nationalism", was published in the "Hürriyet" newspaper on 10 October 2004. At first Karakurt and Kilic were accused of publishing terrorist statements. Later, Kilic and Tatlican were also accused of spreading terrorist propaganda.

The court applied Article 5532 of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

Karakurt had done an interview with militant leader Murat Karayilan and had also written about changes in the lives of militants living on the mountain.

Aquittal in different case

In a separate case, "Milliyet" journalist Namik Durukan was acquitted of any crime related to an article he wrote on Osman Öcalan and about the fact that his life had changed since he had left the PKK. The article had been published on 29 April 2005 under the headings "Osman now rocks a cradle" and "The PKK should retreat". Durukan was aquitted on 10 May. (EÖ/AG)