KCK Media Case Starts Again

KCK [Group of Communities in Kurdistan] press case of 46 Kurdish media workers will start again. The first hearing will take place in 3rd High Criminal Court in Istanbul Court of Justice, Çağlayan.

“No judgment can take place with the existing evidence”

Ramazan Demir, a lawyer at the case, commented to bianet before the hearing. He said they would demand from the court to detect the illegal activities of Special-Duty Courts (ÖYM).

“We will ask them to cease the case. ÖYMs gathered evidence illegally. No one can judge with these evidence. We will demand from the court to detect the illegal activities and remove them from the file. We will also demand the acquittals of all the suspects immediately.”

49 media workers had been taken into custody and 32 of whom had been arrested in a raid on December 21, 2011. After imprisoned approximately 14 months, journalist Çağdaş Kaplan was released and said the following:

“We stated from the beginning of the trial process that ÖYMs was not legal, the trial was a result of a special concept. Our rightness came out when others are affected. This cannot be practiced with the evidence of the court. We will demand to remove the evidence from the indictment and demand our acquittals.”

KCK Media Case

In December 2011, 46 workers had been taken into custody and 32 of whom had been arrested in the police raid aiming at Kurdish media such as Dicle News Agency, Özgür Gündem, Azadiya Welat, Demokratik Modernite and Fırat Distribution

Many journalism activities such as their interviews, photos, the press releases they read, their notes, their talks with news resources and the names of news resources in their phones took place in the indictment as crime evidence. While releasing 17 of 32 prisoners during a 2-year trial process, the court could only release the other prisoners after the abolishment of ÖYMs.

Taking the period they stayed in prison and available evidences into account, Istanbul 3rd High Criminal Court adjudged the acquittals of Mazlum Özdemir, Seyhmus Fidan, Hüseyin Deniz, Nevin Erdemir, Semiha Alankuş, Kenan Kırkaya, M. Emin Yıldırım and Haydar Tekin in February.

After these acquittals, journalists Mikail Barut, Nurettin Fırat, Ertuş Bozkurt, Turabi Kişin, Ramazan Pekgöz, Yüksel Genç and Davut Uçar were also released. While all the journalists were released, Mikail Barut was not freed on the grounds that he has a sentence from another case. (EA/MEV)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.