The new Turkey
Hatice Duman, Atılım

Duman, former owner and news editor of the socialist weekly Atılım(Leap), was serving a life term at Gebze women's closed prison in Kocaeli on charges of being a member of the banned Marxist Leninist Communist Party, or MLKP, producing propaganda, and "attempting to change the constitutional order by force." Other charges against her included seizing weapons and forging an official document in relation to her alleged association with MLKP, according to a list of imprisoned journalists provided by the Turkish Justice Ministry in November 2013 at CPJ's request.

Duman denied all the charges. CPJ found the charges to be unsubstantiated after viewing the available court documents, including the indictment.

As evidence of the membership and propaganda charges, authorities cited Duman's attendance at MLKP demonstrations and the testimony of confidential witnesses. Duman's lawyer, Keleş Öztürk, told CPJ that his client was targeted because Atılım had opposed administration policies.

The weapons and forgery charges were mainly pegged to the testimony of Duman's husband, who later said police had threatened sexual violence against his family if he didn't testify against his wife, according to the independent news portal Bianet.

Duman was sentenced to life in prison on all charges on May 4, 2011, according to local press reports. Under Turkish law, a life sentence without parole is about 30 years. On October 15, 2012, the Supreme Court of Appeals approved the life sentence. Duman's lawyers appealed to Turkey's Constitutional Court, claiming that the evidence used to convict her was gathered illegally and was not properly investigated, that the statement of a fellow defendant used against her was inadmissible, that a request for legal aid to hire her own lawyer had been refused, that the court that convicted her was not impartial, and that the process had lasted longer than was reasonable, according CPJ's review of the court documents.

The Constitutional Court in October 2015 ruled in her favor and sent the case back to Istanbul's 12th Court for Serious Crimes for a retrial, but the lower court in March 2016 denied its order. Under Turkish law, local courts can resist an appeal court’s order for the retrial, according to the People's Law Office, a free law clinic in Istanbul that represented Duman.

In April 2016, the lawyers reapplied to the Constitutional Court. As of late 2017, the court had not responded.

Duman, who in 2017 was 43, has no living close relatives. Sonnur Sağlamer, a legal custodian whom the journalist appointed and who visits the journalist every Monday, told CPJ that Duman is well both physically and mentally. *

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