Germany's foreign minister says prison sentence of journalist Deniz Yücel 'sends wrong signal'

Photo: bnn.de

Click to read the article in Turkish

Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas has criticized the prison sentence given to journalist Deniz Yücel yesterday (July 16) for "terrorist propaganda."

"Today's ruling against Deniz Yücel sends absolutely the wrong signal, and the announcement of further investigations is completely inexplicable to me," he said in a written statement. "It shows that we continue to have significant differences with respect to the protection of freedom of the press and freedom of expression."

Yücel, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany, was remanded in custody for over a year before he was released in February 2018 following negotiations between Ankara and Berlin.

İstanbul 32nd Heavy Penal Court yesterday sentenced Yücel to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days in prison for propagandizing for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"Furthermore, this development does not help build confidence in the application of rule-of-law principles in Turkey," Maas stated.

"We must not forget that numerous German nationals are still in custody in Turkey. In at least some of these cases, the criminal charges are not clearly comprehensible.

"We want all of these cases to be resolved. Until that is done, they will stand in the way of normalizing relations between Turkey and Germany and the European Union as a whole."

"Scandalous but expected"

Die Welt newspaper, which Yücel previously worked as the İstanbul correspondent, said that the court verdict was "scandalous but expected."

"President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government has destroyed the freedom of the press step by step over the past years," it said, noting that dozens of journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey with "fabricated excuses." (HA/VK)