The new Turkey
İsmail Çoban.
Former managing editor of the shuttered Kurdish language daily Azadiya Welat.

Last update: 14-Apr-2020 11:00

15 January 2020:

Jailed journalist İsmail Çoban sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison

A trial where jailed journalist İsmail Çoban, the former responsible editor of the shuttered Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, is accused of “membership of a terrorist group” resumed on 15 January 2020 at the 7th High Criminal Court of Mersin. Announcing their verdict at the end of the hearing, the court sentenced the journalist to 7 years and 6 months in prison. The court did not grant any reductions in Çoban’s sentence. Çoban is currently in pre-trial detention as part of another trial.

21 November 2018:

İsmail Çoban given 5-year prison sentence on “propaganda” charge
 
İsmail Çoban, the jailed former managing editor of the shuttered Kurdish language daily Azadiya Welat, was given a 5-year prison sentence on 21 November at the final hearing of his trial on the “propaganda” charge.
 
Çoban was accused of “successively disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization” on account of a number of news articles and columns the newspaper published in 2013.
 
Submitting its final opinion of the case during the hearing at the 7th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır, the prosecution requested that Çoban be given a prison term of up to 7 years.
 
Çoban’s lawyer Resul Tamur, addressing the court for Çoban’s defense statement, requested that the case be dismissed due to the statute of limitations in Article 26 of Turkey’s Press Law, since the indictment against Çoban was drafted after the expiration of the four-month period prescribed by law.
 
Announcing its verdict at the end of the hearing, the court convicted Çoban and imposed on the jailed journalist a 5-year prison term.