Kurdish Folk Singer Sentenced after Appeal

The Malatya 3^rd High Criminal Court sentenced Kurdish folk musician Ferhat Tunç to imprisonment of one month and decided to postpone the pronouncement of the judgement. Tunç was tried on the grounds of a concert at the 2^nd Nazımiye Düzgün Baba Festival on 12 August 2006 where he allegedly praised 17 people who died in a military operation against the illegal Maoist Communist Party (MKP) in 2004.

The artist will not have go to prison if he does not commit the same sort of offence within the coming month. Additionally, he has to cover costs and expenses of the trial procedures.

Punished after Court of Appeals quashed former verdict

Tunç did not attend the hearing on Thursday (27 January). The Public Prosecutor demanded to follow the reversal of judgement according to the decision of the Court of Appeals 9^th Chamber that quashed the verdict for Tunç's acquittal. The prosecutor claimed that the song entitled "17 lives" performed by the singer "praised crime and a criminal".

The court ruled in favour of the Court of Appeals' decision and sentenced Tunç to imprisonment of one month on charges of "praising crime and a criminal" as stipulated in Article 215 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK).

Süzen: Some of the killed people were his friends...

Tunç's lawyer Osman Süzen claimed that the speech and the song performed at the festival did not constitute any criminal offence. He emphasized that a couple of the artist's friends were among the people who were killed and hence it was natural for him to write a song about it.

Application to the ECHR

Tunç commented, "It is rather thought-provoking that an artist is punished because of his speeches and that a folk song he performed is used as evidence against him in a country that is said to be democratic". He added that he was going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with this "document of shame". (EK/EÖ/VK)