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15-Jan-2020 10:12 |
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21 November 2029: None of the defendants were in attendance. They were represented by their lawyer Özcan Kılıç. The prosecution said they reiterated the final opinion they submitted during the previous hearing and asked the court to sentence Aykol. Kılıç asked the court for a continuance for the preparation of the final defense statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. The court ruled to notify the defendants of the prosecutor’s final opinion and adjourned the trial until 20 February 2020, giving the defendants additional time for their statements. 22 May 2019: 7 People Sentenced to Prison in Özgür Gündem Trial
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Trials of Özgür Gündem Editors-in-Chief on WatchThe Editors-in-Chief on Watch campaign of Özgür Gündem daily had begun on May 3, 2016 and ended on August 7, 2016. Daily was closed through the Statutory Decree No. 675 issued under the State of Emergency. Investigations have been launched against 50 of the 56 Editors-in-Chief on Watch who have participated in the campaign. In 11 of these cases, the court has ordered not to prosecute and in 38 cases, a lawsuit has been brought. One case has been dismissed due to expiration of the Statute of Limitation in the investigation Relying on the Articles 7(2) and 6(2) of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713, the 38 Editors-in-Chief on Watch have stood trial on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and for "publishing and spreading statements of terrorist organizations. Cases in which court ruled no prosecution İhsan Eliaçık, Sebahat Tuncel, Ahmet Abakay, Eşber Yağmurdereli, Hasip Kaplan, Işın Eliçin, Kemal Can, Mustafa Sönmez, Melda Onur, Uğur Karadaş, Nurcan Baysal. Editors-in-Chief on Watch, against whom lawsuits were brought A. Kumru Başer, Ahmet Nesin, Ayşe Batumlu, Ayşe Düzkan, Beyza Üstün,Can Dündar, Celal Başlangıç, Celalettin Can, Cengiz Baysoy, Çilem Küçükkkeleş, Derya Okatan, Dicle Anter, Erol Önderoğlu, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Faruk Balıkçı, Faruk Eren, Fehim Işık, Hüseyin Tahmaz, Hakkı Boltan, Hasan Cemal, Hasan Hayri Şanlı, İbrahim Bodur, İhsan Çaralan,Julide Kural, Murat Çelikkan, Murat Uyurkulak, Nadire Mater, Necmiye Alpay, Nevin Erdemir, Öncü Akgül, Ragıp Duran, Said Sefa, Şanar Yurdatapan, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Veysi Altay, Yıldırım Türker. * Deniz Türkali's case was dismissed due to expiration of the Statute of Limitation in the investigation. * The cases of Özgür Gündem daily's former editor-in-Chief Hüseyin Aykol, columnists Mehmet Ali Çelebi and Hüseyin Bektaş, who were on duty during the campaign, have been combined with the cases of Düzkan, Duran and Çelebi. The 38 Editors-in-Chief on Watch have stood trial / are standing on the charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and for "publishing and spreading statements of terrorist organizations under the Articles 7(2) and 6(2) of the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713. Cases brought against 4 writers Lawsuits were filed against Ömer Ağın and Dilşah Kocakaya due to their articles published on Özgür Gündem daily, while Celal Başlangıç was the Editor-in-Chief on Watch; against İmam Canpolat due to an article published while Cengiz Baysoy was the Editor-in-Chief on Watch, and against İlham Bakır due to an article published while Jülide Kural was the Editor-in-Chief on Watch. Önderoğlu, Nesin, Korur-Fincancı in 10-days pre-trial detention * Editors-in-Chief on Watch, Erol Önderoğlu, Ahmet Nesin and Şebnem Korur Fincancı were arrested in June 2016 and released after 10 days. The next hearing of the three writers whose trials continue, will be held on December, 27, 2017. 68,000 TL (15,619 Euros) fine, 188 months and 15 days of prison sentenceVerdict has been rendered in the trials of Şanar Yurdatapan, İbrahim Bodur, Cengiz Baysoy, İmam Canpolat, Çilem Küçükkeleş, Nadire Mater, Yıldırım Türker, Hasan Cemal, Faruk Balıkçı, Dicle Anter, Derya Okatan, Kumru Başer, Ayşe Batumlu, Jülide Kural, İlham Bakır, Murat Uyurkulak, Murat Çelikkan, Beyza Üstün, Nevin Erdemir, Hakkı Boltan, Hasan Hayri Şanlı and Tuğrul Eryılmaz. 4 acquittalsŞanlı, Erdemir, Tahmaz and Boltan have been acquitted. Prison sentences of Çelikkan (18 months), Canpolat (15 months) not deferredThe court has ruled in 22 cases in total, that the editors-in-chief on watch be sentenced to 68,000 TL (15,619 Euros) fine and 235 months and 15 days in prison. All prison sentences except those of Canpolat and Çelikkan, have been deferred. Çelikkan entered Kırklareli Prison on August 14, 2017 and was transferred to open prison on October 14, 2017. He was released on October 21, 2017. Kızılkaya's casesÖzgür Gündem Managing Editor İnan Kızılkaya is defendant in all 38 cases. His case was separated from the others in the trials together with the other Editors-in-Chief on Watch. İstanbul 23rd Heavy Criminal Court is combining Kızılkaya's case with the main trial. Özgür Gündem main trialIn the main trial, Özgür Gündem Consultant Board members Necmiye Alpay, Aslı Erdoğan, Ragıp Zarakolu, Filiz Koçali, Eren Keskin, Editors-in-Chief Zana Kaya, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Sancılı and Bilge Oykut are standing trial. Sancılı has still been arrested as part of the lawsuit. |
17 January 2019:
Journalists Reyhan Çapan, Seda Taşkın released from prison;
Reyhan Çapan, the former managing editor of the shuttered pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, who was sent to prison in May 2018 to serve a 15-month sentence that was upheld by an appellate court, was this week ordered to be released under probation. Although Çapan was expected to be freed on 16 January, she remained in prison because of a TL 55,660 sum of fines that had been imposed on her in separate cases and were overdue. Çapan was eventually released from the Erzurum Prison on 17 January.
Also on 17 January, Seda Taşkın, a reporter for the Mezopotamya news agency (MA), who had been in prison for a year, was released from the Sincan Prison in Ankara. Taşkın was released as per an interim ruling issued by an appellate court overseeing the appeal against the prison sentence Taşkın was given in October. Taşkın was sentenced to a total of 7,5 years in prison on the charges of “aiding a terrorist group without being its member” and “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist group.”
9 October 2018:
Özgür Gündem columnists and editors on trial
Another trial on the same day, where Özgür Gündem editors and columnists Eren Keskin, Reyhan Çapan, Reyhan Hacıoğlu, Hüseyin Aykol, Filiz Koçali, Ayşe Berktay, Nuray Özdoğan, Celalettin Can and Ayşe Batumlu face “terrorism propaganda” and “overtly praising crime and criminal” charges over some articles and reports published in the now-defunct daily, was also adjourned.
Lawyer for Eren Keskin, Özcan Kılıç, requested that Keskin’s file be separated and merged with the Özgür Gündem main trial, overseen by the Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court, as she was also a defendant in that case on similar grounds.
It was also revealed at the hearing that the file of another defendant who published articles in Özgür Gündem, Züleyha Yılmaz, had been merged with the case file. The court ruled to request the indictment and court reports on previous sessions from the Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court and adjourned the trial until 28 March 2019.
30 August 2028:
Imprisoned journalist Reyhan Çapan not given newspapers, books, sister says
Imprisoned journalist Reyhan Çapan is not being given the Evrensel daily and the books her family have been bringing to her by the prison management, Çapan’s sister told Evrensel.
Çapan is currently in the Erzurum Prison, serving a 15-month sentence. She was convicted of “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization” during her time as the responsible managing editor of the shuttered Özgür Gündem daily. Çapan was arrested on 10 May in Artvin and placed in the Artvin Prison. She was transferred to the Erzurum Prison on 24 May.
Çapan’s sister, Gülhan Çapan, told Evrensel that her family, normally based in Istanbul, had to rent a hotel room in Erzurum after Reyhan was placed in the Erzurum Prison in order to be able to visit her.
Çapan’s lawyer Özcan Kılıç said Çapan’s numerous petitions asking to be transferred to a prison in Istanbul have been rejected on grounds that the prisons in Istanbul were full to capacity.
9 July 2018:
Özgür Gündem trial adjourned
The eighth hearing of a trial against former editors and columnists of the shuttered pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem was held on July 9.
Lawyer and human rights defender Eren Keskin, Özgür Gündem’s former co-editor-in-chief, attended the hearing at the 14th High Criminal Court of Istanbul, monitored by P24.
Keskin is charged in this case with “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization.”
Also on trial in the same case are Özgür Gündem editors and writers Hüseyin Aykol, Reyhan Çapan and Filiz Koçali, lawyers Ayşe Batumlu and Nuray Özdoğan, writer Ayşe Berktay, spokesperson of 78ers Initiative, Celalettin Can, and Özgürlükçü Demokrasi editor Reyhan Hacıoğlu.
Both Keskin and her lawyer, Özcan Kılıç, addressed the court during the hearing, demanding that Keskin is acquitted.
In its interim ruling issued at the end of the hearing, the court ordered the case file of the main Özgür Gündem trial to be brought in in order to rule on whether or not to merge the two cases, and adjourned the trial until October 9, 2018.*
