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.

Özgür Amed

Özgür Amed

Özgür Amed, a columnist for the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was shut down in November 2016 under an emergency decree, was imprisoned for more than two years on charges of “committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organization without being its member.”

Amed was arrested and sent to prison on February 23, 2015 after the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling, handed down by Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court, to sentence him to three years, one month and 15 days in prison.

The journalist was arrested after attending a rally held in protest of the Roboski massacre of December 28, 2011, when a botched airstrike by the Turkish Air Forces warplanes near the town of Uludere in Şırnak province killed 34 Kurds.

Amed was released on June 24, 2017, after serving his sentence reduced to more than two years under relevant laws.
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