Turkish court sentenced Friday to six years and three months in prison for belonging to a “terrorist organization,” a member of the main pro-Kurdish party in the country, elected earlier this month in Parliament, local media reported.
After a lengthy trial, a court in Van (East) held Lezgin Botan, a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), guilty of being part of the Union of Kurdistan Communities (KCK), which includes all the rebel movements
Only in Muslim Turkey 860 years in prison Former police intel chief
A former police intelligence chief is required to serve up to 860 years in prison in a wiretapping case, in which he has been found guilty of wiretapping 48 people, including several government officials, journalists, judiciary personnel and businessmen.
Ramazan Akyürek, the former chief, was indicted on the charge of “heading a terrorist organization” and sentenced to more than eight centuries in prison over the case filed by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on June 9.
Akyürek had previously been indicted on the charge of “causing death with negligence on duty” in the Hrant Dink’s murder case and was sent to prison on Feb.27.
Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead on Jan.19, 2007, while Akyürek was the Trabzon Police department head.
Akyürek was among 50 police officers from various ranks whose names appeared in a 130-page indictment with charges of “forming and running a criminal organization,” “fabricating false documents,” “illegally keeping private information,” and “violating private life and communication privacy” in the wiretapping investigation, led by prosecutor Alpaslan Karabay.
All the 50 were accused of forming a terrorist organization serving the goals of the alleged “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”
The indictment also contained a report made by the Turkish Interior Ministry that stated the executive assistant of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli and his advisors had been wiretapped.
“Wiretapping people from a political leader’s inner circle begets wiretapping that political leader. The wiretapping done right before the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011, could have had a bearing on the fate of a political party and the country’s domestic politics,” it stated.
June/11/2015
Former Miss Turkey faces prison for ‘insulting’ President Erdoğan
Model and former Miss Turkey Merve Büyüksaraç is facing up to two years in prison for social media posts that prosecutors claim “insult” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The indictment has been completed as a part of an investigation into Büyüksaraç’s post, in which the prosecutor Umut Tepe demanded that she be sentenced to one to two years in prison. The Criminal Court of First Instance in Istanbul will now decide whether to initiate proceedings.
Büyüksaraç, an industrial designer and writer who was crowned Miss Turkey in 2006, was briefly detained and questioned on Jan. 14 for sharing a satirical poem on her Instagram account.
“The Master’s Poem,” shared by Büyüksaraç, satirically criticized Erdoğan through verses adapted from the lyrics of Turkey’s national anthem.
The prosecutor’s indictment stated that “The remarks shared by the suspect could not be considered within the terms of freedom of expression.”
Büyüksaraç told the prosecutor that she “may have quoted a poem” from the weekly humor magazine Uykusuz, but deleted it soon after when one of her friends warned that such messages could bring about criminal procedures in Turkey.
“I shared it because I found it funny. I had no intention of insulting [Erdoğan],” she said.
Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist faces jail term for ‘PKK propaganda’
DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency
A lawsuit has been opened against Frederike Geerdink, a Diyarbakır-based Dutch journalist, on charges of making propaganda on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with the prosecutor demanding between one and five years in prison.
Geerdink was briefly detained on Jan. 6 as a part of an operation launched by the Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office after three different complaints were made to the Ankara police.
The 6th High Criminal Court has accepted an indictment in which the prosecutor’s office said it was determined that the journalist made PKK propaganda by sharing the organization’s flags and member’s activities on social media.
In her testimony, Geerdink pled not guilty and refused that she shared posts either praising the PKK or against the state, the indictment also said.
Geerdink’s detention came hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had declared at a meeting of ambassadors in Ankara that “there is no freer press, in Europe or elsewhere in the world, than in Turkey.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders was also attending the meeting when the journalist was detained.
While Koenders raised his concerns during his meetings with Turkish colleagues, including Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on Jan. 6, the Turkish side defended the impartiality of the ongoing judicial process.
“The incident caused uproar because of Turkey’s unfair record,” Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said Jan. 7, asking whether European countries would not demand the testimony of a Turk “if they made propaganda of a terrorist organization.”
“Turkey is facing unfair criticism over the detained journalist,” he added.
February/02/2015
Kurdish Mother and Infant Twins to Begin Prison Term in Turkey
Kilinc with her infant twins: ‘I can take care of them more easily if they can walk.’ Photo: AA
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A Kurdish mother, convicted for selling books related to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), begins her jail sentence in Turkey later this month, along with her twin infants.
Mulkiye Demir Kılınc was convicted for selling books related to the PKK at the Mesopotamian Culture Center. After one of her clients, who was sending the books to the PKK, was arrested, Kilinc also was charged with “aiding a terror organization.”
The new mother, whose jail term starts on May 19, has asked for the sentence to be postponed for a year, so that her six-month-old twins are a little older and can walk.
“If the sentence is postponed for a year, they will be one-and-a-half years old, so they will be able to walk. They will not spend their infancy, when they only can crawl, at prison. I can take care of them more easily if they can walk,” Kılınc recently told Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper.
On Sunday, Mother’s Day in Turkey, the Human Rights Association (IHD) has arranged a demonstration in Istanbul to protest the sentence.
A board member of the IHD in Istanbul, Seza Mis Horoz, told Rudaw that the prison sentence is a great injustice.
“To get such a big punishment for selling books and even come to prison with children is unbelievable. How should a mother go to jail with her children under such circumstances?” Horoz asked.
Over a year ago, the PKK and Turkey’s government started a peace process to end a bloody war that killed more than 40,000 people in a 30-year conflict. In return for the pullout of PKK guerrillas from Turkey, it was expected that the Turkish government would give the Kurds greater cultural and linguistic rights, even though details of the agreement between the two sides remain unknown.
According to Horoz, there is an inexplicable contrast between negotiating with the PKK, and imprisoning a woman for selling books to the same organization.
“What kind of peace does the Turkish state want with the PKK, when they at the same time imprison people with accusations of ‘selling books to the PKK?’”
She feared that such actions could damage the peace process between Turkey and the PKK.
“It creates frustration among people who thus lose faith in the government’s desire for peace,” she said.
Hejar Dashti, an expert on Kurds at Copenhagen University, told Rudaw that despite the peace process the PKK is still a banned organization in Turkey, according to the country’s terror laws.
“PKK is officially still the enemy number one in Turkey, therefore any connection to the organization is forbidden and is charged with terror paragraphs,” he explained.
He further added that both parties in the peace process are accusing each other of not living up to the process, and therefore the process is somehow put on standby.
Hurriyet newspaper.