A case launched by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office against "Ulkede Ozgur Gundem" newspaper Editor-in-Chief Huseyin Aykol for a 2003 interview with leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Kandil Mountain started this Tuesday with the newsman defending his work.

Charged with "membership to an organization" Akyol appeared before the court for the first time on Tuesday and said the sole purpose of his trip to the PKK-stronghold of Kandil Mountain three years ago was to conduct an interview with the organization.

He said that he was charged under the Anti-Terror Law only after the said interviews were published in the newspaper.

Akyol faces 10 years imprisonment if found guilty of membership to an armed organization but in the case being heard at the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court, his lawyer Ozcan Kilic argued that allegations against him, particularly claims made by a supergrasser, were contradictory in nature and asked for his acquittal.

The indictment on Akyol cites as evidence a connection to photographs that were seized at Ozgur Halk magazine offices in Istanbul on July 15, 2004. The photographs, allegedly those of organization members, were later sent to other provinces and shown to captured PKK/Kongra-Gel members for identification purposes.

A prisoner identified as Hakan Bazo and arrested in Adana in January 2005 is alleged to have pointed out Huseyin Aykol among the pictures and said he was the journalist who visited the PKK camp in 2003 and interviewed the leaders and militants while giving them moral support.

In Tuesday's hearing the judge adjourned the trial to December 12 asking for the prosecutor to prepare his final opinion on the case.

Background

The charges leveled against Akyol stem from a trip he made to the Kandil mountains in August 2003 where he interviewed PKK militants and executives, covered their life and views. At that time he was the Foreign News Editor of the newspaper.

In May this year Akyol was detained by Anti-Terrorism teams while leaving the Istanbul Besiktas Justice Hall after which the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office concluded a preparatory investigation against him.

His interviews were seen as being evidence to his "membership to an armed terror organization" and charges have been brought against him under articles 314/2 and 53 of the Turkish Penal Code and article 5 of the new Anti-Terror Law (TMY).

While his alleged offence was committed almost three years before the current TMY went into effect, the prosecution is also demanding for Akyol to be stripped of all electoral and social rights under the new law, another first in the enforcement of this controversial legislation.

The prosecution's case coincided with the first implementation of media restriction articles of Turkey's Anti-Terror Law whereby two pro-Kurdish publications Akyol has been involved with, were temporarily banned from print in August this year. Akyol's Ulkede Ozgur Gundem newspaper was suspended from print for 15 days while the affiliated monthly Ozgur Halk (Free People) magazine was banned for a month. Both publications were accused of carrying content in the nature of propaganda for a terror organization. (EO/TK/II/YE)