The 5^th High Criminal Court of Diyarbakır in the pre-dominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey detained journalist Ozan Kılınç, former concessionaire and editor-in-chief of the Azadiya Welat newspaper. In February, Kılınç had received a prison sentence of 21 years and three months under charges of spreading propaganda for the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) when he was still working for the Kurdish daily.

Kılınç was arrested by the police on Thursday morning (22 July) in the course of a police raid on his home in Kayapınar, a district of Diyarbakır. He was detained and taken to the Diyarbakır D Type Prison after the court had confirmed his identity.

Detention after handing down heavy prison sentence

On 9 February, the court had decided that contents of the Kurdish daily were opposing the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) and came to the conclusion that Kılınç "committed crimes on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member of the organization".

Kılınç was sentenced to imprisonment of 21 years and three months on the grounds of 12 issues of the newspaper published in June 2009.  The court had also decided to issue an arrest warrant for Kılınç.

In detail, the court had handed down  prison sentences of six years and three months under charges of "committing crimes on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member of the organization" and of another one year and three months for each issue on subject because of "propaganda for an illegal organization". (EÖ/VK)