The Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office has charged "Ulkede Ozgur Gundem" Editor-in-Chief Huseyin Aykol with "membership to an armed terror organization" due a 2003 interview he conducted with members and executives of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK/Kongra-Gel) organization in a mountain camp.

The prosecution's case coincides with the first implementation of media restriction articles of Turkey's Anti-Terror Law whereby two pro-Kurdish publications Akyol has been involved with, have been banned from print.

Akyol's Ulkede Ozgur Gundem newspaper (the Free Agenda in the Country) has been suspended from print for 15 days while the affiliated monthly Ozgur Halk (Free People) magazine has been banned for a month. Both publications were accused of carrying content in the nature of propaganda for a terror organization.

Akyol's first hearing has been listed for September 26 at the Istanbul 9th High Criminal Court and if found guilty of membership to a terrorist organization, he faces up to 15 years imprisonment.

The charges leveled against him 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 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. (EO/AD/II/YE)