First Hearing for Journalist after 1 Year in Detention

Worker-Peasant newspaper employee Suzan Zengin will have been detained for a whole year in the Bakırköy (Istanbul) Women and Children Prison when she is going to appear at court for the first time on 26 August.

Zengin was taken into custody by the Istanbul police on 28 August 2009 and was taken to the Anti-Terror Branch together with three other people who had been arrested at their homes in Kartal (Anatolian side of Istanbul) at the same time.

Trial starts on 31 August

Zengin and the other three people were taken to the courthouse in Beşiktaş (European side of Istanbul) and detained the same evening under charges of "membership to an illegal organization". When leaving the courthouse, Zengin shouted the slogan "A revolutionist cannot be silenced by pressure". She was taken to the Bakırköy prison whereas the other three defendants were brought to the Metris Prison.

The Worker-Peasant newspaper suspects a "conspiracy" behind the events. The newspaper stated that Zengin has worked as a journalist for the revolutionary-socialist press in the district of Kartal for years.

In the first sentence of a letter Zengin sent from prison, she wrote, "When this letter reaches you, I will have been in detention for about nine months as the result of a complot".

"Unquestioned advanced punishment"

Zengin said that she had not been taken before a court in the meantime. "The indictment and the date for the first hearing should have been announced a couple of weeks ago". Regarding her first hearing on 26 August, Zengin wrote, "This is the result of a rationale of an unquestioned advance punishment".

In the indictment, Zengin is accused of "carrying out illegal activities" referring to publications such as the Worker-Peasant newspaper, which is published by the Umut Publishing Company, the Partisan magazine and the New Democratic Youth (YDG). Zengin criticized the allegations, "There is no evidence for any activities of mine in the democratic field that would go beyond my work as a journalist, as put forward in the indictment".

The journalist claimed that there was no proof and that the charges and her detention were against the law. She emphasized that her publishing activities were carried out within the rules of law. "If there is any 'unlawfulness', it is within the rules of law of the government", Zengin wrote.

The Turkish G9 Platform, consisting of eleven professional press organizations, urged the authorities to make the necessary amendments of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK), the Anti-Terror Law (TMY), the Press Law and the Constitution as soon as possible and to provide security for freedom of thought and expression in all aspects. The Platform furthermore demanded the release of all journalists in detention. (EÖ/VK)