Verdict expected in Gezi Trial on 22 April; actor İlyas Salman goes on trial; attackers of Levent Gültekin given deferred sentence; prosecutor seeks prison term for ETHA journalists

 

Gezi Trial: Kavala remains behind bars, verdict expected on 22 April

 

An Istanbul court ruled to keep business person and civil society figure Osman Kavala in pre-trial detention at the end of the latest hearing of what is publicly known as the Gezi Trial, held on 21 March 2022.

 

The Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court rejected all the requests submitted during the hearing by lawyers of Kavala and his co-defendants to expand the investigation and examine more evidence. The lawyers also asked the court to call witnesses to testify about the accusations and the co-plaintiffs to explain the grievances allegedly caused by the defendants. The court, however, refused saying it would “make no contribution to the case file” and gave the defendants time until 22 April to present their final defense statements. Our detailed report from the hearing can be accessed here.

 

Actor İlyas Salman goes on trial under Article 301 for televised comments

 

Renowned actor İlyas Salman appeared before an Istanbul court on 22 March for the first hearing of a trial where he is charged with "denigrating the Turkish nation" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code for his comments in a televised interview. He faces up to two years in prison if convicted.

 

"If [President] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decides to give me the world's biggest award and a pile of cash, I would not go and receive it from him. Because he has already gotten his award through the votes cast by this mindless nation," Salman said in the Jan. 2021 interview with Yol TV, which he then shared on his social media post.

 

"An artist should relentlessly express his critical stance. I did not insult the nation, I made critical comments about the people who vote for the current government," Salman, 71, told the court at the hearing. His trial will resume on 13 September.

 

Attackers of journalist Levent Gültekin given deferred sentence

 

Two people accused of attacking journalist Levent Gültekin last year were convicted of "wilful injury" at the end of a trial concluded on 23 March 2022.

 

The Bakırköy 47th Criminal Court of First Instance in Istanbul sentenced the two defendants to 11 months and 20 days in prison each and then deferred the announcement of the verdict, meaning they will not serve any time unless they get convicted again in the next five years. Gültekin was attacked by a group of 20-25 people in March 2021 outside the building of pro-opposition broadcaster Halk TV, where he hosts a current affairs program. Only two people were identified as suspected attackers and stood trial in connection with the attack, which left Gültekin with broken fingers.

 

Former Zaman reporter Ahmet Dönmez attacked in Sweden 

 

Journalist Ahmet Dönmez, a former correspondent for the now-defunct Zaman newspaper, was attacked on 19 March 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he lives.

 

Dönmez, who was reportedly receiving threats recently, was driving with his six-year-old daughter after picking her up from school when his car was hit from behind by another car. He was attacked by two unidentified people that got out of the vehicle, following which he lost consciousness and was hospitalized with head trauma. Dönmez received treatment at the intensive care unit and was reported to be making a recovery.  

 

Journalist Altan Sancar threatened, says he fears for his life

 

Journalist Altan Sancar has been threatened by unidentified people who cut off his car in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, where he was visiting his family.

 

Two people that got out of the vehicle approached the car that Sancar was driving and one of them, who was visibly carrying a pistol, told him “You overstepped. Behave,” according to a report published by Bianet on 23 March. Sancar filed a complaint with the public prosecutor, asking the authorities to identify and prosecute the individuals who threatened him and saying that he feared for his life.

 

Government offers to pay compensation to Zehra Doğan in ECtHR case

 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled to strike out an application filed by journalist and painter Zehra Doğan after the government acknowledged a violation by the local authorities in the course of her imprisonment and pledged to pay 1350 euros in compensation.

 

Doğan applied to the ECtHR in September 2020, saying that her right to presumption of innocence was violated as a result of the rejection of her request for her transfer to an open type correctional facility and eventual conditional release. The Tarsus Enforcement Court rejected Doğan’s request in February 2019 on the grounds that she had not made a declaration “ceasing to be a member of the terrorist organization” and given that she was held in the wing designated for terrorist offenders she could not be considered “neutral” so as to warrant her transfer to an open type correctional facility.

 

In a decision dated 24 February 2022, the ECtHR said it was satisfied by the government’s proposal to make a unilateral declaration acknowledging a violation of Article 6/2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and offering to pay Doğan 1350 euros for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses. More details can be found in our report.

ECtHR rejects application on Wikipedia ban due to Constitutional Court decision

 

The European Court of Human Rights declared inadmissible an application filed by Wikimedia Foundation against a nearly two-year ban on Wikipedia in Turkey, saying the Turkish Constitutional Court that already ruled against the ban.

 

The Court said in its judgment dated 24 March 2022 that the Constitutional Court’s judgment had afforded “appropriate and sufficient redress for the damage sustained by the applicant foundation” and that therefore Wikimedia Foundation could no longer claim victim status.

 

Turkish authorities blocked access to the entire website of Wikipedia in April 2017 after its requests for removal of two of its pages entitled “State-sponsored terrorism” and “Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war” were not fulfilled. Wikimedia Foundation filed an application with the Constitutional Court in May 2017 after its appeals against the ban were rejected by lower courts. It then took the case to the ECtHR in April 2019, almost two years after its Constitutional Court application.

 

The Constitutional Court issued its judgment on the application on 26 December 2019, finding that there had been a violation of Article 26 of the Constitution protecting the right to freedom of expression. The ban on Wikipedia was lifted after the Constitutional Court judgment was published on 15 January 2020.

 

Prosecutor seeks prison term for ETHA journalists Pınar Gayıp, Semiha Şahin

 

The 17th hearing in the long-running trial of Etkin News Agency (ETHA) news editor Semiha Şahin and reporter Pınar Gayıp was held on 24 March 2022 at the Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court.

 

The prosecutor submitted his final opinion on the case to the court two days before the hearing, on 22 March, asking the court to convict Gayıp and Şahin of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.” He cited the fact that Şahin and Gayıp work for ETHA, along with some of their social media posts and journalistic activities, as evidence to back up the charges. Lawyers representing Şahin and Gayıp requested time to prepare their defense statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. The court accepted the request, adjourning the trial until 26 May 2022.

 

Journalist Hayri Tunç detained, faces probe

 

Journalist Hayri Tunç was arrested by police officers when he was covering a Newroz gathering in Istanbul's Yenikapı on 20 March 2022 in connection with two ongoing investigations.

 

One of the investigations targeted Tunç's social media posts regarding a book about the Maraş Massacre of December 1978, when a series of attacks targeting homes and businesses of Alawites left more than 100 people dead. Tunç was released by a decision of the criminal judge of peace after giving his statement to the prosecutor in charge of the investigation. The judge rejected the prosecutor's request to order Tunç to regularly report to a police station and ban him from traveling abroad.

 

The second investigation was launched in connection with his coverage of a protest in Istanbul following a suicide bomb attack in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa in 2015, killing more than 30 people. The prosecutor decided to dismiss the investigation, concluding that Tunç's participation at the protest was in his capacity as a journalist.

 

Journalists Ertuş Bozkurt, Mikail Barut detained in Diyarbakır

 

Journalists Ertuş Bozkurt and Mikail Barut were arrested in police raids on their homes in Diyarbakır on 20 March 2022. The two journalists were released after three days in police custody.

 

The journalists were reportedly detained on the basis of an anonymous tip-off allegedly saying that they were going to “instigate disorder” on Newroz, celebrated on 21 March.

 

Saturday Mothers trial adjourned until September

 

The fourth hearing of a trial where 46 people who were arrested during a police intervention against the 700th weekly vigil of the Saturday Mothers/People movement in Istanbul on 25 August 2018 was held on 23 March 2022 at the Istanbul 21st Criminal Court of First Instance. The 46 defendants, including relatives of people who were victims of enforced disappearances in the 1990s and human rights defenders, are charged with violating the Law no. 2911 on Public Meetings and Demonstrations.

 

Relatives of the missing persons, some carrying photos of their loved ones, continued to present their defense statements to the court. They said their participation in the 700th week gathering was legal as it had been ongoing without any obstruction for 699 weeks by then, and denied the prosecution’s accusations.

 

The court accepted requests from nine of the defendants to be exempted from attending future hearings and adjourned the trial until 21 September.

 

Newspaper distributors given prison term at the end of retrial

 

The Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court sentenced Ercan Yeltaş and Veysi Altın, distributors of the now-defunct Kurdish newspaper Rojeva Medya, to 7 months and 15 days each for “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization” at the end of a retrial on 22 March 2022.

 

Yeltaş and Altın were charged with “terrorism propaganda” after they were found carrying four copies of Rojeva Medya in August 2017. They were acquitted at the end of the original trial but went on trial again after the acquittal verdict was overturned by a regional court of appeals. None of the defendants were present at the court hearing on 22 March. Lawyer Resul Temur, who represents Yeltaş, asked for his client’s acquittal, saying that the newspaper had not been banned in August 2018 when he was found to be in possession of its copies. The court, however, convicted the defendants but deferred the announcement of the verdict.

 

Trial of Aziz Oruç and Ersin Çaksu postponed to October

 

The eighth hearing in the trial of journalists Aziz Oruç and Ersin Çaksu under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code over some of the articles published in the now-defunct Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspaper between 21 October and 1 November 2016 was held on 24 March 2022 at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.

 

No observer was allowed into the courtroom due to pandemic restrictions. The court adjourned the trial until 27 October 2022 to await execution of an arrest warrant issued against Ersin Çaksu, who is yet to give his defense statement.

 

Trial of Can Dündar and İnan Kızılkaya adjourned

 

The trial of Can Dündar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and İnan Kızılkaya, the former responsible editor of the now-defunct Özgür Gündem newspaper, was postponed to a future date at the end of its 19th hearing that was held on 24 March 2022.

 

The two journalists are on trial on the charge of “insulting a public official” on account of an article that was published in Özgür Gündem when Dündar symbolically took over its chief editor position for a day as part of a solidarity campaign with the newspaper in 2016.

 

Trial of Şerife Oruç adjourned until June

 

The 20th hearing in the trial of journalist Şerife Oruç on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization” was held at the Batman 2nd High Criminal Court on 24 March 2022. The court adjourned the trial until 23 June 2022, awaiting submission of certain documents requested earlier from the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

 

Rüstem Batum’s trial on charge of “insulting the president” postponed

 

Journalist Rüstem Batum’s trial on the charge of “insulting the president” on the basis of some of his social media posts from 2018 resumed on 24 March 2022 at the Istanbul 12th Criminal Court of First Instance.

 

Batum, who lives abroad, did not attend the hearing. His lawyer told the court that Batum should be acquitted on the basis of the ECtHR’s judgment in the Vedat Şorli v. Turkey case, in which the Strasbourg court found that the conviction of the applicant on the charge of insulting the president constituted a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court, however, ruled to wait for execution of an arrest warrant issued against Batum to receive his defense statement and adjourned the trial until 12 October.

 

At least 56 journalists and media workers in prison

 

As of 26 March 2022, at least 56 journalists and media workers are in prison in Turkey, either in pre-trial detention or serving a sentence.

 

The full list can be accessed here.