Expression Interrupted

Journalists and academics bear the brunt of the massive crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey. Scores of them are currently subject to criminal investigations or behind bars. This website is dedicated to tracking the legal process against them.

Novelist, former Özgür Gündem columnist Aslı Erdoğan acquitted

Novelist, former Özgür Gündem columnist Aslı Erdoğan acquitted

The retrial was ordered by an appellate court, which reversed the trial court’s decision to drop the “propaganda” charge against Erdoğan in the “Özgür Gündem main trial”

 

CANSU PİŞKİN, ISTANBUL

 

The second hearing of the retrial of novelist and former Özgür Gündem editorial advisory board member Aslı Erdoğan on the charge of “terrorism propaganda” was held at Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court on 10 February 2022.

 

The retrial was ordered by the 27th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, an appellate court, which reversed the trial court’s decision to drop the “propaganda” charge against Erdoğan in the “Özgür Gündem main trial” on the grounds that the four-month statute of limitations prescribed in Article 26 of Turkey’s Press Law would not be applicable in Erdoğan’s case since the articles she stood trial for have also been published online.

 

P24 monitored the hearing. Erdoğan, who lives abroad, did not attend. She was represented by her lawyers Özcan Kılıç and Ayşe Acinikli. The presiding judge only allowed Erdoğan’s mother to observe the hearing. No other spectators were allowed in the courtroom due to Covid-19 measures.

 

At the previous hearing, the court had decided to inquire about the URLs of Erdoğan’s articles of the cyber-crime unit under the General Directorate of Security.

 

Delivering its verdict at the end of this week’s hearing, the court acquitted Erdoğan on the grounds that her articles that were also published in the now-defunct newspaper’s online edition could not be found according to the General Directorate of Security report.

 

Özgür Gündem was “temporarily” closed on 16 August 2016 by an Istanbul court, which cited “terrorism propaganda” as the grounds for its decision. The same day, Erdoğan and other executives and editorial advisory board members of the newspaper were taken into custody in police raids. Erdoğan, who was jailed on 19 August 2016, spent more than four months behind bars before being released pending trial. At the original trial, which concluded in 2020, Erdoğan was acquitted of “disrupting the unity and integrity of the state” and “membership in a terrorist organization” charges while the “terrorism propaganda” charge against her was dropped.

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