The court sentenced Kabaş to 2 years and 4 months in prison for “insulting the president” but ruled for her release from detention on account of the time she already served

 

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL 

 

Journalist Sedef Kabaş, who was arrested in a midnight police raid on her home on 22 January over televised comments critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was released pending appeal at the end of the first hearing in her trial on 11 March.

 

Kabaş, who was imprisoned pending trial soon after her arrest, was behind bars for 49 days. The indictment had sought nearly 12 years in prison for Kabaş on charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting a public official” in connection with her comments regarding Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. The court ruled to sentence Kabaş to 2 years and 4 months in prison for “insulting” Erdoğan and acquitted the journalist of the “insult” charge involving the two ministers. It also ruled to release Kabaş from prison, citing the time she already served.

 

Kabaş and her lawyers were present at the hearing at the Istanbul 36th Criminal Court of First Instance, along with lawyers representing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who later submitted requests for recognition of Erdoğan and Soylu as co-plaintiff in the case. Most of the people who came to the Istanbul Courthouse despite cold and snow to observe the trial – journalists, representatives of civil society organizations, supporters of Kabaş -- were unable to get into small courtroom and waited in the corridor until the end of the court session. Those who were able to get in included Mehmet Durakoğlu, head of the Istanbul Bar Association, and the main opposition CHP deputy Utku Çakırözer.

 

“The journalist’s duty”

 

Kabaş presented her defense statement at the hearing, rejecting the charges and demanding her acquittal and release. She said her televised comments on Tele1 TV were not meant to be insult. “I did not insult the president, I would not, and I would not condone it either,” she said, adding, however that she “can criticize the government in the harshest way if necessary. It is within the scope of freedom of expression and it's a journalist's duty.”

 

“I will continue to tell the truth despite what this government has put me and us through,” she told the court.

 

Kabaş also suggested that her arrest and imprisonment were politically-motivated, saying she was first targeted by a pro-government newspaper and then was arrested by the police teams raiding her home. “I would have gone [to the police station] if they had invited me. According to the human rights action plan announced by the president, people were not to be arrested in midnight raids anymore. But words and actions do not match,” she said. Kabaş went on to say that she was “declared guilty” by ministers, the public broadcasting watchdog RTÜK and the ruling AKP politicians. “There was no need to wait for a court decision. The verdict had already been reached. It makes one think if there was an order from above,” she said.

 

Kabaş cited a Circassian proverb, that an ox does not become a king upon entering into a palace but the palace becomes a barn, during the show broadcast live on Tele1. She said at the court that she did not even utter the name of Erdoğan.

 

“What kind of a crime had I committed that they now want my imprisonment for 12 years? These are all criticism. They cannot be regarded as insult. Otherwise it would mean the violation of the public’s right to information,” she said.

 

Kabaş also told the court that she would not accept a decision to defer the announcement of the verdict in case she got convicted at the end of the trial, saying she was not guilty of any crime.

 

Erdoğan and Soylu accepted as co-plaintiff

 

Kabaş’s lawyers protested when the lawyers representing Erdoğan and Soylu requested the court to accept the two politicians as co-plaintiff. Lawyers Uğur Poyraz and Kerem Altıparmak said those who request to be co-plaintiff should state their reasons, to which a lawyer representing Erdoğan responded by saying: “Right, should the president come to the courtroom then?”

 

The prosecutor agreed with the co-plaintiff requests on account of the possibility that Erdoğan and Soylu might have been “harmed by the crime.”

 

Kabaş’s lawyer Uğur Poyraz said it was not possible for any judge in Turkey to stand against a wish of the president. “Any judge to do so should be ready to get reassigned,” he said, adding that they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights after the legal remedies in Turkey were exhausted.

 

Lawyer Altıparmak asked the court to reject the co-plaintiff demands, saying: “The president’s lawyer clearly asks for privileged treatment by saying that his client would not come to the courtroom. Those who have been harmed by a crime are required to come to the courtroom and explain their grievances. If you recognize the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, you cannot accept these requests,” he said.  

 

The judge presiding the hearing accepted requests from Erdoğan and Soylu’s lawyers and allowed them to join the trial as co-plaintiff.

 

Final opinion and verdict

 

The hearing then proceeded with presentation of the final opinion of the prosecutor on the case. The prosecutor asked the court in his final opinion that Kabaş be convicted and sentenced for “insulting the president” for her comments on Tele1 TV and “insulting a public official” for her comments targeting Interior Minister Soylu that “Soylu was betraying his surname.” The Turkish word “soylu” means “noble.” The prosecutor requested that Kabaş be acquitted on another count of “insulting a public official” involving Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu, who had also filed a complaint against Kabaş.

 

Lawyers of Erdoğan and Soylu then asked the court to sentence Kabaş to highest possible prison term, with Erdoğan’s lawyer saying that Kabaş had insulted the president before and Soylu’s lawyer stating that the fact that his client is a public figure does not mean his integrity could be attacked.

 

Responding to the final opinion, Kabaş said that she was “not afraid of being put on trial, as long as justice is served. I have been on live TV for 25 years. No one can say that I have insulted anyone.”

 

Kabaş’s lawyer Kerem Altıparmak reminded the court of a recent European Court of Human Rights verdict which condemned Turkey for convicting a social media user on the charge of insulting the president. “This judgment is final and you have to abide by it as well,” Altıparmak said of the Vedat Şorli v. Turkey judgment.

 

Lawyer Poyraz said: “You will decide whether Turkey is a state governed by the rule of law. You will decide whether or not the citizens are equal before the law and whether or not they can criticize the government.”

 

The court then announced its verdict to convict and release Kabaş, which can now be appealed. Kabaş was released from the Bakırköy Women’s Prison later in the day.