sentenced Archives

Turkey: Prominent journalist Hasan Cemal sentenced to jail for ‘terror propaganda’

February 14, 2017 by administrator

Hasan-cemal, been doing journalism for 47 years

Damla Güler – ISTANBUL,

Prominent Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal has been convicted on charges of conducting “terror propaganda” due to a 2016 article regarding one of the leading figures of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), receiving a suspended sentence of one year, three months in jail.

In the second hearing of the case on Feb. 14 in which Cemal was charged with “conducting terror propaganda” and “praising crime and criminals,” an Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes sentenced him to a 15-month suspended prison term but acquitted him on a second charge.

The journalist was on trial for a July 11, 2016, column titled “Fehman Hüseyin.”

“I have been doing journalism for 47 years. For the first time, I am being accused like this for the articles and books that I have written,” Cemal said during his hearing. “I have never defended terror. I have never become a tool for terror propaganda. I have always defended peace. Journalism is not a crime. There is no law, freedom and democracy in a society where journalism is a crime.”

Cemal is separately on trial for terror-related charges allegedly committed while he was serving as a one-day editor-in-chief of daily Özgür Gündem as part of a solidarity campaign with the now-closed paper.

Özgür Gündem was shut down on Aug. 16, 2016, for allegedly conducting propaganda on behalf of the PKK and acting as the organization’s media organ.

During that case’s trial held on Feb. 14, prosecutors demanded Cemal’s imprisonment for up to eight years over charges of “carrying out terror propaganda.”

Along with Cemal, trials into more than 20 other journalists and intellectuals, including Ayşe Düzkan, Ragıp Duran, M. Ali Çelebi, Can Dündar and Necmiye Alpay, who participated in the solidarity campaign for Özgür Gündem, were also held at two Istanbul courts.

During the hearing of Alpay – a prominent Turkish linguist – prosecutors also gave their opinion and demanded her imprisonment for up to eight years on charges of carrying out “terror propaganda” and “releasing the organization’s press releases,” referring to the PKK.

The court adjourned hearings in the case into Alpay and several other defendants.

However, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Central Board Committee member Çilem Küçükkeleş and publisher Cengiz Baysoy were given suspended sentences of one year, three months each in jail for conducting terrorist propaganda while participating in the Özgür Gündem solidarity campaign.

The pair was also assessed fines of 6,000 Turkish Liras each for “printing and publishing a statement from a terrorist organization.”

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/prominent-journalist-hasan-cemal-sentenced-to-jail-for-terror-propaganda.aspx?pageID=238&nID=109730&NewsCatID=341

Russia’s Valeri Permyakov sentenced to life imprisonment

August 23, 2016 by administrator

Valeri permykov Court of General Jurisdiction of Shirak Marz chaired by judge Harutyun Movsesyan sentenced today Valeri Permyakov, Russian serviceman from 102nd Military Base, to life imprisonment over the mass murder of seven members of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, Armenia, on January 2015.

The court found the indictments on all of the charges brought against Permyakov proved. V. Permaykov was convicted under the Armenian Criminal Code’s Article 104 part 2 points 1, 5, and 8 (contract murder of two or more people committed with cruelty, for mercenary motives, and combined with extortion, robbery or banditry), Article 175 part 2 points 3 and 4 (robbery committed after a break-in, with the use of weapons or other objects used as a weapon), and Article 34-329 part 1 (an attempt to violate the state border of the Republic of Armenia without the necessary documents or permission).

According to the Court ruling, Permyakov was sentenced to life imprisonment under Article104 part 2 points 1, 5, and 8 (contract murder of two or more people committed with cruelty, for mercenary motives, and combined with extortion, robbery or banditry).

To note, none of the legal successors to the Avetisyan’s family was present at the courtroom during the announcement of the verdict.

On January 12, 2015 Valeri Permyakov was performing guard service with a rifle of AKA-74 model, 60 bullets of 5.45 mm caliber and a bayonet knife number 689 attached to him. At about 02:00 he voluntarily left the post and with the purpose of finding clothes and money walked around Gyumri. At about 06:00 getting to the house 188, Myasnikyan Street, Gyumri with the intend to steal somebody’s property, through banditry by using a weapon he entered the yard through the open gate, approached the house, through taking out the door glass with the bayonet knife and opening the door with a key which was on the lock from the inside, he illegally entered the mentioned house and with the intend to deprive two or more persons from life, he killed the residents of the same house Aida Avetisyan, Hasmik Avetisyan, Seryozha Avetisyan, Armen Avetisyan, Araqsya Poghosyan and the infant Hasmik Avetisyan with 28 point-blank shots fired from rifle of AKA-74.

Then with the intend to murder, he stabbed five times with the bayonet knife fixed to the rifle at vital organs of 6 month-old Seryozha Avetisyan lying helplessly at his mother’s lap. As a result the baby died in hospital seven days later.

Germany: German-Turkish bombmaker sentenced over illegal arms

July 4, 2016 by administrator

A Frankfurt court has sentenced a German-Turkish man to two and a half years in jail for breaking weapons laws, after police found a bomb in his cellar. He had originally been accused of planning to attack a bike race.

The 36-year old from the town of Oberursel, near Frankfurt, was guilty of possession of illegal weapons and falsification of documents, the court ruled on Monday.

The police arrested Halil D. and his wife in April last year, following a tip from a supply store that the couple had bought chemicals that could be used for homemade bombs. The two provided fake personal details during the purchase, police said.

During the search of the defendant’s home, the authorities also found a pipe bomb, an assault rifle, ammunition and a bazooka grenade. According to unconfirmed information, the couple was scoping out the route of a large bicycle race scheduled for May 1. The officials canceled the event due to safety fears.

Islamist ties

The dual Turkish-German national was already known to police for a range of offenses, including assault. He was reported to have close ties with Islamist extremists in Germany. Police also said they found videos of a violent and extremist nature while searching computers seized in the couple’s Oberursel residence.

The defendant’s wife was soon released, however, after claiming she did not know about the materials her husband kept in the basement. She said they had bought the chemicals to remove mould.

During the trial, the man claimed that he had made the pipe bomb as a teenager some 20 years ago, and forgotten about it.

The court said there was not enough evidence showing that the defendant had considered an attack. Instead, he was convicted of keeping the illegal weapons cache.

dj/tj (dpa, AFP, AP)

Former Miss Turkey sentenced to prison for ‘insulting’ Erdoğan

May 31, 2016 by administrator

Former Miss Turkey and model Merve Büyüksaraç has been sentenced to prison for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his prime ministry via a post on Instagram. A complaint was filed against Büyüksaraç, who was chosen Miss Turkey in 2006, for “openly insulting a public official for his duty.”

“The boundaries of criticism shouldn’t be interpreted harshly due to the complainant being a state authority. We think that the statements my client shared should be evaluated politically. That’s why we demand the acquittal of my client,” said Ali Deniz Ceylan, Büyüksaraç’s lawyer, on May 31.

The prison sentence of one year, two months and 17 days was postponed. Up to four years and five months in prison was sought for Büyüksaraç.

The lawyers of the parties were the only participants in the hearing, in which Erdoğan’s lawyer claimed that Büyüksaraç’s statements could not be evaluated within the framework of criticism.

“An attack took place against the personal rights of my client. We want the defendant to be punished,” said Erdoğan’s lawyer, Hatice Özay.

Büyüksaraç had said that she was regretful in her defense in the first hearing of the case and asked for her acquittal.

“The poem I’ve shared was shared 960,000 times on social media. I shared the poem via giving quotes from it. The comments near the pictures and the poems, which are in the bill of indictment, don’t belong to me,” Büyüksaraç said.

“I’m regretful that the post I shared was perceived as an insult,” she also said.

Azerbaijan’s lobbyist in European Parliament sentenced to 3,3 years for bribery

March 7, 2016 by administrator

f56dd5c3851a14_56dd5c3851a51.thumb Five years after a bribery scandal broke out in the European Parliament, former MEP Adrian Severin, who was also lobbying Azerbaijan’s interests in the EP, was sentenced to 3,3 years in prison in Romania for attempting to make changes in the European Union legislation in exchange for up to 100 thousand euros, according to The Sunday Times.

The story, known as the “cash-for-laws scandal,” goes back to 2011, when a group of journalists from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists and offered money to 60 MEPs for adopting amendments watering down rules protecting bank customers across Europe. Adrian Severin, former Foreign Minister of Romania; Zoran Thaler, former Foreign Minister of Slovenia; and Ernst Strasser, Foreign Minister of Austria, agreed to the deal, according to the EurActiv.

Back then, the European Parliament said in a press release that on 21 March 2011, “the Romanian National Anti-Corruption Department instituted proceedings against Mr Severin on the basis that between December 2010 and March 2011 he allegedly accepted an offer of payment of €100,000 from representatives of a fake lobbying company ‘Taylor Jones Public Affairs’ (created by the ‘Sunday Times’)” to adopt amendments favourable for them and vote against those going against the interests of the company they represented. FOCUS information agency reports that a video filmed on the journalists’ hidden camera shows him agreeing to receive 4000 euros a day for his work. This prompted the European Parliament to waive Severin’s parliamentary immunity.

After being offered the deal, Severin, the vice-president of the Socialist Group (the second biggest in the EP), asked an unsuspecting colleague to table the amendment offered by the disguised lobbyists. The EurActiv cites an email sent from Severin to the reporters “just to let you know that the amendment desired by you has been tabled in due time,” before sending them a 12 thousand euro invoice for “consulting services.” Later Severin said he had done nothing illegal.

As a result, a political scandal broke out. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Parliament initiated an investigation into the case to punish the above-mentioned MEPs. However, the problem was that both the rules of the OLAF and the Codes of Conduct and Ethics of the European Parliament referred to misuse of public money rather than a private lobbying company. Therefore, the issue was to be solved in the frameworks of the legislation of the countries the MEPs under question were representing. Meanwhile, the media reported about Severin’s exclusion from the Socialist Group in 2011. However, he refused to leave his seat in the European Parliament and remained there until the completion of his term in 2014.

According to the Lawyer Herald, a law news portal, Adrian Severin’s sentence was possible because, under the Romanian Penal Code, giving bribe implies the promise, offering or giving money or other benefits.

In their time, there were different media reports about the above MEPs being lobbyists of the interests of various forces. In particular, the Russian service of Radio France Internationale called Adrian Severin “an open defender of Azerbaijan.”

Severin’s pro-Azerbaijan position was expressed both in his support of the country during votes and in his written questions, which are available on the EP website. Back in 2008, in response to a speech by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for Trade and European Neighbourhood Policy, where she addressed the Georgian crisis and noted the EU’s commitment to offering support to Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova as regards their territorial integrity and sovereignty, Severin expressed his protest over “the omission of Azerbaijan from the speech by Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner.” Further, he asked the Commission to say whether it was “ready to prepare a plan to advance its relations and to step up its cooperation with Azerbaijan.”

In 2013, the Romanian MEP asked another written question to the Commission for the European Neighbourhood Policy. In the question, he noted that “Azerbaijan has an important regional role in the energy security, geoeconomic, geostrategic and cultural fields.” He also made an inquiry about the EU’s “alternatives” to define “the basis of a strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, including a declaration of the EU’s unequivocal support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.” He asked the Commission whether the EU was committed to signing a visa facilitation agreement with Azerbaijan.

Severin was the last protagonist of the scandal to be sent to prison. Ernst Strasser was sentenced to four years in 2013, and Zoran Thaler received a two-and-a-half-year prison term in 2014. Before that, unlike the Romanian politician, they resigned as the scandal broke.