PRESS FREEDOM

The Şişli (Istanbul) 2^nd Magistrate Criminal Court handed down a 8,000 TL (€ 3640) monetary fine to Kenan Celepoğlu on the grounds of electronic mails he sent to the Armenian Agos newspaper which allegedly contained insults, threats and racism.

The lawyers of the weekly newspaper brought a charge against an unidentified person in December 2008. As a result of the investigation Celepoğlu was confirmed to live in Samsun (Black Sea coast) and a case was opened against him under charges of "insult via an oral or written message".

Further accusations

The Şişli court did not leave it at that. The court furthermore aggravated the penalty by taking th grave intend and the severity of the words into account.

Moreover, the court did not apply mitigation of punishment due to intended racism. The prosecution filed a criminal complaint concerning "threats", "inciting hatred and hostility and humiliating the public".

Çetin: Decision sparks hopes for judiciary system

Agos lawyer Fethiye Çetin emphasized that this decision is of great importance and that it sparks hopes for the establishment of a sense of justice.

"The case was launched with a negative start since it was opened due of 'insult' only, although we demanded punishment from several angles in our petition. The decision has corrected the negative start which I find very important".

Çetin recalled that the Şişli 1^st Criminal Court of First Instance handed down a prison sentence without deduction to a defendant earlier this year. Again, the defendant stood accused for threatening Agos. It is a positive and hopeful sign for the Turkish judiciary system that this kind of racism and hostile actions are punished without applying deduction. In our opinion, these examples have an intimidating effect and are encouraging for other judges".

Fourth penalty for threat and insult against Agos

Muhammet Karay received a 3 years 3 months prison sentence from the Şişli 1^st Criminal Court of First Instance on 28 May 2009 for threatening Agos newspaper employees and Armenians with the e-mails he had sent.

Zafer Filiz received a prison sentence of 3 years from the Şişli 9^th Criminal Court of First Instance on 20 March 2008 on the grounds of threatening the newspaper 12 days after the assassination of Turkish-Armenian Agos editor Hrant Dink.

The same court handed down a 2 years sentence to 19-year-old Rıdvan Doğan in October 2007 due to threats he had sent to the newspaper after the Dink murder. The sentence was suspended because the defendant had not been tried for any other crime, because he showed regret and was not expected to commit another crime. The court decreed to keep Doğan under supervision for 2 years. (EÖ/VK)