Şirin Kabakçı (53), who used to be the Konya bureau chief for the Zaman newspaper, Turkey’s most highly circulated newspaper before the Turkish government’s unlawful takeover and closure of it in 2016, is one of the 236 journalists who have been jailed in Turkey.
Kabakçı, who has been behind bars over 17 months, is one of the dozens of journalists who were arrested in the aftermath of a controversial coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 because they used to work for media outlets affiliated with the Gülen movement.
Kabakçı now faces up to 10 years in prison over his alleged links to the Gülen movement and he has been charged with being a member of an “armed terrorist organization.” Namely, his only crime is his past employment by Zaman newspaper.
Mr. Kabakçı, who is a father of three, graduated from Ege University’s Faculty of Communication in 1989. He worked as a journalist in various positions for 28 years. His professional activities as Provincial Bureau Chief of Zaman daily in Konya province that are ordinary tasks for a journalist in that position have now been used as only evidence against him a case opened against Kabakçı.
His lawyer has stated during a hearing in his trial before a court that “Kabakçı was arrested unlawfully by Konya 3rd Criminal Court of Peace without showing a justification on May 24, 2017, by leaving the sections of the detention warrant related to ‘the date of crime’ and ‘the place of crime’ empty. This situation shows that the prosecutor and the judge who arrested Kabakçı have not sufficient evidence to arrest him and the arbitrariness of his arrest.”
Journalist Kabakçı’s attitudes until his detention on May 11, 2017, totally eliminates all the suspicions about his possible fleeing. He summed up this situation during a hearing in the court: “When I became unemployed in İstanbul, I moved to my hometown, Bartın. Immediately, I went to the related official departments and reported my new address. Does anybody who plans to flee do that? Moreover, my passport was canceled six months after I was arrested. If I was to run, I would do that when I still have my passport.”
Journalist Kabakçı is right. As hundreds of his colleagues were arrested, if he was detained in an address that he has declared to official departments as he still has his valid passport nobody could justify that he was detained and arrested over suspicion of his escape. Therefore, the judge has shown ‘the deficiencies in his file” as a justification for the continuation of his imprisonment.
However, journalist Kabakçı has been held in prison for 17 months and it seems that it is not possible to have deficiencies in his file since he has been tried alone in the case. Even though there are some deficiencies in his file, that should be deemed as the prosecutor’s misdemeanor and the defendant should not be blamed for that.
Moreover, the date and place of the crime allegedly committed by journalist Kabakçı have been shown in his indictment as Konya province, but he has been tried in İstanbul. Because the Konya 7th High Criminal Court decided on October 7, 2017, to transfer his file to İstanbul by violating the national and international rules of law. According to the law and as part of the principle of ‘the natural judge’, the defendants should be tried in a court where the alleged crime was committed.
Journalist Kabakçı has been charged by the prosecution in connection with his duty in Konya province. The witnesses who testified against him are still living in Konya, but he has been tried at the 35th High Criminal Court in İstanbul. So, he can attend the hearings only with a video system called SEGBİS. It is a clear violation of the law that the court in Konya, which ruled for the arrest of Kabakçı and leaving the sections of the date and place of the crime allegedly committed empty, to transfer the file to an İstanbul court.
The violations of the law in the case of journalist Kabakçı are not limited to this. The accusations against him are totally based on the ordinary things that anybody does in his/her daily life. But, as thousands of people were detained, arrested and tired on some pretexts that are not normally criminal, Kabakçı has also faced the same situation. Using a popular mobile phone messaging application called ByLock and canceling the subscription to Digitürk (a digital TV platform) are among the main pretexts.
However, using a messaging application which is used by hundreds of thousands of people all around the world or leaving a digital TV platform are not a crime anywhere in the world. There is no such definition of crime in Turkish criminal laws, either. However, the Turkish judiciary which is under the full control of the Justice and Development Party (government) led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invented such crime and even applied them to the past.
The more interesting part of his story is that Kabakçı has never used ByLock and he canceled Digiturk subscription much before the date when prosecutors claimed it is a criminal offense. Thus, the statements of witnessed and a document showing his registration to the social security system through his employee Zaman newspaper, remain in his file.
Turkish authorities believe ByLock is a communication tool among alleged followers of the Gülen movement. Tens of thousands of people, including civil servants, police officers, soldiers, businessmen and even housewives, have either been dismissed or arrested for allegedly using ByLock since a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
The witnesses stated that Kabakçı was working for the Zaman newspaper and the police officers also attached his social security records to his file. Like every registered and tax-paying company, Zaman newspaper had also reported the list of its staff to the Ministry of Labor and the social security system of the country. Namely, there is no need for witness testimony to understand that Şirin Kabakçı worked for Zaman daily. According to valid laws working in a newspaper doesn’t make anybody a terrorist suspect either. Of course, all these are for normal conditions in which the rule of law dominates.
Journalist Kabakçı expressed his objection to the witness statements in the court and stated that “The witnesses have only stated that I was the Provincial Bureau Chief of the Zaman newspaper. I don’t deny that anyway.”
Among the accusations against journalist Kabakçı in his file are to take part in international travels with delegations including the AKP government ministers and deputies and talking on the telephone with his colleagues including journalist Ekrem Dumanlı, editor-in-chief of Zaman daily. Şirin Kabakçı has listed the international trips that he participated in together with AKP deputies, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Erdoğan daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan at the court. “I participated in these trips with the assignment of the newspaper management. I did not do anything other than journalism during these international trips. The news stories which I wrote about these trips were published in the newspaper,” said Kabakçı.
Journalist Kabakçı has also objected the using of his hundreds of phone calls as evidence of a crime without even knowing the contents of them. He stated that “I am not a saint. I could not know that my ordinary telephone calls before 2013 would be put before me as a crime in 2017.”
Some of the documents which Kabakçı was planning to use during his defense at the court were taken by the officers during his SEGBIS connection to İstanbul court from Konya. Since it is a serious violation of the international law and the Turkish Constitution, which guarantee the right of defense, this move was recorded by the lawyer during the hearing.
The trial of journalist Şirin Kabakçı, which has been followed by some journalist organizations, is going to continue with a hearing on October 9, 2018. The Kabakçı case is a prototype for the persecution and prosecution of the hundred thousands of people who were persecuted through Turkish judiciary following the controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. His case is also an example of how jailed journalists have been tried in Turkish courts.
Turkey is ranked 157th among 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). If Turkey falls two more places, it will make it to the list of countries on the blacklist, which have the poorest record in press freedom.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 236 journalists and media workers were in jail as of September 20, 2018, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 168 were under arrest pending trial while only 68 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 147 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the government also closed down some 200 media outlets, including Kurdish news agencies and newspapers, after a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
The post Case of jailed journalist Şirin Kabakçı – A prototype of persecution in Erdoğan’s Turkey appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/case-of-jailed-journalist-sirin-kabakci-a-prototype-of-persecution-in-erdogans-turkey/
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder