Two Journalists Sentence in the Appeal Court

Mehmet Kutlular the owner of daily "Yeni Asya" and Nureddin Sirin the writer of daily "Selam" which had been closed down a while ago, will object to the sentence ruled according to the article 312 of Turkish Criminal Law.

The Supreme Court has approved by majority vote the 2 years sentence of Kutlular who has interpreted the August 1999 earthquake as the "Divine Justice"; and 1 year 8 months sentence of Şirin who has "Resembled Kemalists to Satanists" in his article titled "Satanism or Kemalism".

If the objections of attorneys Hacı Ali Ozhan and Mehmet Ali Aslan are rejected, two journalists will be imprisoned in a critical period when Turkey is expecting to start the membership negotiatons with EU while in the EU progress report it has been stated that the reforms on freedom of expression are not sufficiently implemented.

The regulation in Article 216 which will replace Article 312 in the new Turkish Criminal Law which is going to be in force on April 1st 2005 titled as "The incitement of people to hatred and hostility or despise" will be worded as follows:

"A person who incites hatred and hostility of a certain group of people belonging to a social class, race, religion, sect or region, against another group of people, will be sentenced from 1 to 3 years of imprisonment if their act creates an evident and potential risk for the public security" (EO/BB/CC/YE)