The new Turkey
Sibel Hürtaş.
Artı TV Ankara bureau chief

23-Jan-2020 10:18

3 December 2019:

Trial of Sibel Hürtaş and Hayri Demir adjourned until March 

Journalists Sibel Hürtaş and Hayri Demir appeared before the 15th High Criminal Court of Ankara on 3 December 2019 for the sixth hearing in a trial where they face up to 10.5 years on the charges of “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “inciting the public to hatred and animosity” for sharing their reporting on Turkey’s military operation in Syria’s Afrin on social media.

The prosecution had requested Demir to be tried under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code in addition to the allegations leveled against him. The court announced that the Ministry of Justice was yet to respond to the application of permission. Both Hürtaş and Demir requested the court to take into consideration the amendments introduced with the judicial reform package. The court rejected the request to lift the judicial control measures and adjourned the trial until 26 March 2020. 

3 July 2019:

27 March 2019:

New charge under TCK 301 sought in Sibel Hürtaş and Hayri Demir’s trial
 
The fourth hearing in a trial where 11 defendants, including journalists Hayri Demir and Sibel Hürtaş, stand accused for their social media posts, was held on 27 March in Ankara. The defendants in the case are accused of “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist group” and “inciting the public to hatred and animosity” over their social media posts critical of Turkey’s military operation on the Syrian city of Afrin.
 
Hürtaş, Demir, their co-defendant Bengü Aslı Bayramoğlu and defense lawyers were in attendance for the hearing at the 15th High Criminal Court of Ankara.  
The prosecution submitted their final opinion of the case during the hearing, seeking convictions for Bengü Aslı Bayramoğlu, Hüseyin Gökdemir, Osman Konukçu, Lezgin Tekay, Muhammed Barış Ceyhan and Saim Serin of the “propaganda” charge.
 
The prosecution also sought conviction for Demir on the same charge, however, the accusation was based on a social mediapost by Demir that was not included in the indictment.
 
The prosecution did not submit their final opinion concerning the remaining four defendants in the case, however, they asked the court to seek the Justice Ministry’s approval for new charges to be pressed on all defendants in the case under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) -- “publicly denigrating the Turkish nation, the state of the Turkish Republic, or the institutions and organs of the state.”
 
Addressing the court during the hearing, Demir requested additional time for his defense statement. He also said the social media post for which he is accused was actually a news item that was based on official documents.
 
DEfense lawyers also requested continuance for defense statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. The lawyers also reacted to the prosecution’s request to press new charges under Article 301, saying any legal process to be carried out in connection with this charge would be unlawful.
 
In its interim decision, the court agreed to seek the Justice Ministry’s approval to press new charges under TCK 301 against the defendants and adjourned the trial until 3 July 2019. In the event the ministry gives the go-ahead, the court will return the case file to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office

22 November 2018:
Trial against Sibel Hürtaş and Hayri Demir adjourned until January
 
The second hearing of a trial where 11 defendants, including Artı TV’s Ankara representative Sibel Hürtaş and Mezopotamya news agency reporter Hayri Demir, stand accused for their social media posts concerning Turkey’s military operation on Syria’s Afrin, was held on 22 November in Ankara.
 
The defendants in the case are accused of “disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “inciting the public to hatred and animosity.” They  each face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The trial is overseen by the 15th High Criminal Court of Ankara.
 
At the beginning of the hearing, the chief judge on the panel announced that the police report in response to an enquiry on the dates of the social media posts that are the grounds for the accusations has arrived. The defendants then addressed the court for their defense statements, each rejecting the accusations and requesting for their acquittal. The defense statements were frequently interrupted by the chief judge on the panel, and were not fully transcribed in the court minutes.
 
Defense lawyer Nuray Özdoğan, who addressed the court on behalf of the entire defense, requested that the defendants be granted the right of exemption from attendance in hearings. Özdoğan also requested additional time to examine the reports that have recently been added to the case file.
 
During the hearing, defense lawyers complained that there was a perceptible noise from police radio inside the courtroom and that this constituted a violation of the defendants’ rights to a fair trial. In its interim ruling at the end of the hearing, the court granted the defendants the right of exemption from attendance and adjourned the trial until 22 January 2019.

6 September 2018:

Journalists in court
The trial of two journalists who criticized Turkey's 2017 military action in northern Syria on social media has begun, Evrensel reported on September 6. The journalists--Sibel Hürtaş, the Ankara correspondent for the station Artı TV, and Hayri Demir, reporter for the Mezopotamya News Agency--are on trial for "provoking the people into animosity and hatred" and "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organisation" on Twitter. Both journalists, who are free while the trial continues, pleaded not guilty.

15 May 2018:

Sibel Hürtaş and Hayri Demir face up to 10.5 years in prison

Artı TV Ankara bureau chief Sibel Hürtaş and Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reporter Hayri Demir are facing “inciting the public to hatred and animosity” and “propaganda” charges in a new indictment against the journalists.

 The indictment, issued by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, seeks up to 10.5 years imprisonment for each: up to 3 years on the charge of “inciting the public to hatred and animosity” and additionally up to 7.5 years on “conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization through publication.”

 The charges stem from the journalists’ news reports and social media posts concerning Turkey’s military operation on Syria’s Afrin.

 Excerpts from remarks made by the politicians Osman Baydemir and Ahmet Faruk Ünsal during interviews they gave to Hürtaş are held as evidence against the journalist.

 Both Hürtaş and Demir were taken into custody in late January on account of their social media posts and released four days later under judicial control measures.*

15 May 2018 - 2 journalists face lengthy jail sentences due to criticism of Afrin operation

An indictment drafted by Turkish prosecutors seeks 10 and a half years for two journalists, Artı TV Ankara representative Sibel Hürtaş and Mezopotamya news agency reporter Hayri Demir, due to their social media messages about a Turkish military operation in Syria’s Afrin region, the Diken news website reported on Tuesday.

On Jan. 22, Turkish police detained dozens of people including local politicians and journalists due to their criticism of the Afrin operation, which was launched jointly by the Turkish military and Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters on Jan. 20 against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey sees as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Hürtaş and Demir were among the detainees but were later released on judicial probation.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has drafted an indictment for the two journalists in which it seeks a total of 10 years, six months in prison based on the 216th article of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns inciting the public to hatred and enmity, and Article 7 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Law, which concerns disseminating the propaganda of a terrorist organization through the media.

Remarks made by Hürtaş during an interview with former Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Ahmet Faruk Ünsal in which she said, “We should ask why Turkey was disturbed by Afrin when it was a secure and safe place,” made their way to the indictment as evidence of a criminal act.

Hürtaş, whose trial is set to begin soon, said the prosecutor’s move is a serious blow to freedom of the press and expression.

“I will continue to perform my job as a journalist within the framework of media ethics,” the journalist said.

The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have reacted strongly to people who oppose the operation, and prosecutor’s offices have initiated investigations into those who share social media messages critical of the operation. Source

15 January 2018:

Journalists released

Turkish authorities released Sibel Hürtaş, the Ankara correspondent for the station Artı TV, on January 25, and Nurcan Baysal, a columnist for the online independent newspaper T24, on January 24,Baysal's employer reported.

Police detained the journalists earlier in the week after they criticized Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria, according to the online news site Bianet.Authorities were investigating the journalists for "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," according to Deutsche Welle and Hürtaş's lawyer, who was cited by the journalist's employer. They are still under investigation, according to T24.

17 July 2016:

Columnist detained at airport still in custody

Orhan Kemal Cengiz, the columnist for the now-defunct pro-Hizmet daily Özgür Düşünce, was denied access to his lawyer for hours, according to his wife Sibel Hürtaş. Cengiz was detained at Atatürk airport yesterday alongside Hürtaş, who is also a journalist. In a series of tweets yesterday and today Hürtaş, who was released yesterday, said her husband was denied access to his lawyer for hours and that the detention was in apparent connection to an investigation from 2014. CPJ was unable to verify her claim.