The legal expert opinion, penned by lawyer Benan Molu and prepared at the request of journalist Deniz Nazlım’s lawyer, was submitted to the court at the first hearing of the case, held on 9 January 2024

Punto24 Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) has prepared an expert opinion on the case filed against journalist Deniz Nazlım on the charge of “participating in unlawful meetings and demonstrations and not dispersing despite warning” under Article 32/1 of the Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations.

The legal expert opinion was penned by Benan Molu, a lawyer registered with the Istanbul Bar Association No. 1 and who specializes in European human rights law and the law of individual application to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

Full text of the expert opinion (in Turkish) can be viewed here.

Nazlım is on trial alongside fellow journalists Sibel Yükler and Yıldız Tar in the case, which got underway on 9 January 2024 at the Ankara 71st Criminal Court of First Instance. The expert opinion, prepared upon a request by Deniz Nazlım’s lawyer Gulan Çağın Kaleli, was submitted to the court by Kaleli during the hearing, which was monitored by P24.

The indictment against Nazlım, Yükler and Tar was issued on 8 June 2023, about a year after all three journalists were subjected to physical violence and detained with reverse handcuffs by the police as they were on their way to join a press statement in Ankara on 5 July 2022. The press statement, blocked by the police, was jointly planned by the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) and Mezopotamya Women Journalists Platform (MKGP) to protest the arrest of 16 journalists in Diyarbakır in June 2022.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which dismissed a complaint filed by the three journalists against law enforcement officers who violently detained them, requests sentencing for Nazlım, Yükler and Tar on grounds that they had “insisted on not leaving” and “encouraged and provoked the people to illegal meetings and demonstrations.”

The expert opinion examines the indictment against the three journalists from the perspective of international law and particularly European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case-law regarding freedom of expression and the press and freedom of assembly and of association.

The expert opinion states that the press statement claimed by the prosecution to be “unlawful” was intended to draw attention to the jailed journalists and that this was a matter of public concern.

The expert opinion points out that neither the journalists who wanted to participate in the press statement, including Deniz Nazlım, nor the associations that organized the press statement resorted to violence in any way or engaged in any behavior that would encourage violence or prevent another press statement held at the same place and time under approval from the Governor’s Office.

The expert opinion stresses that the indictment and police reports fail to explain why the journalists’ press statement was deemed to be “unlawful” and whether the force used against the journalists was necessary and proportionate.

Noting that interventions targeting journalists’ freedom of expression and press freedom as well as their right to peaceful assembly may violate Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in addition to Articles 10 and 11, the expert opinion draws attention to a recommendation issued by the Parliament’s Ombudsman Institution that law enforcement units should take utmost care to provide a suitable environment for press members who carry out journalistic activities during the performance of law enforcement duties and that a more careful language should be used in relations with members of the press.

Stating that police reports on the incident give the impression that Nazlım and the other journalists were detained although the law enforcement officers knew that they were journalists and with the intention of preventing them from carrying out journalistic activities, the expert opinion stresses that there is no concrete evidence to back the allegation that Nazlım and the other journalists carried out any acts that would disrupt public order and that the accusation against the journalists does not meet the principle of legality.

The expert opinion concludes: “Deniz Nazlım is facing a prison sentence of six months to three years for a peaceful protest he participated in. In light of ECtHR judgments which found even a judicial fine to be a disproportionate sanction, it is obvious how severe and disproportionate a sanction a prison sentence would be.

"P24 is of the opinion that the case filed against Nazlım and a prison sentence that may be given to the journalist, who is believed to have been subjected to judicial harassment due to a protest he had participated in, may violate the freedom of expression and assembly, which are safeguarded by the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the prohibition of restricting these rights and freedoms for political reasons.”