The new Turkey
Kazım Kızıl.
Documentary filmmaker. Photojournalist for the website Kamera Sokak

06-Jan-2020 17:10

13 November 2019:

Canan Coşkun, Tuba Demir and Kazım Kızıl released after 1 day in custody

Journalists Canan Coşkun and Tuba Demir and documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl were taken into custody on 13 November 2019 in the Eynesil district of Giresun, where they had gone to cover the Parliamentary Investigation Commission’s investigation into the suspicious death of 11-year-old Rabia Naz Vatan in 2018. The girl lost her life in the hospital after being found severely wounded in front of her house. Rabia Naz Vatan’s father Şaban Vatan was also arrested.

According to the Giresun Governor’s Office, the four were arrested for locking up Mürsel Küçükal, a witness in the investigation of Rabia Naz Vatan’s death, in a studio to threaten him.

After their interrogations, the four were referred to the Görele Criminal Judgeship of Peace, where they were released under judicial control measures on the night of 14 November. Besides an international travel ban, the court ruled to prohibit the four from approaching the witness’ home.

1 October 2018:
Kazım Kızıl trial adjourned until December

The latest hearing in a trial where video-activist and documentary maker Kazım Kızıl and 23 others are accused of “insulting the president” and “violating the Law on Protest and Assembly,” was held on 1 October in Izmir.

Kızıl and his co-defendants were taken into custody in April 2017 in Izmir during a demonstration held in protest of Turkey’s constitutional referendum results. The 33rd Criminal Court of First ınstance of Izmir adjourned the trial until 19 December 2018.

13 July 2017:

Documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl spent nearly three months in provisional detention in Izmir before being released under judicial control on 10 July. Arrested while covering a demonstration, he was accused of “insulting the president” in his tweets.**

22 April 2017:

Journalist jailed pending trial for covering referendum protest
A court in the coastal city of Izmir in the early hours of April 22 ordered documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl jailed pending trial on charges of "insulting the president," illegal protest, and "provoking the people to animosity and hatred," the daily newspaper Evrensel reported. Police arrested Kızıl alongside 19 other people from a protest against alleged fraud in the April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments giving the president more power. In remarks quoted by Evrensel, Kızıl's lawyer, Diçer Çalım, said his client was documenting the protest and called the arrest "arbitrary."

17 April 2017:
Also on April 17, police in the western city of Izmir detained Kazım Kızıl, a photojournalist for the website Kamera Sokak, who was covering a protest against alleged irregularities in the constitutional referendum, according to Demokrat Haber and Ben Gazeteciyim, a volunteer association of Turkish journalists formed to show solidarity with their threatened colleagues.