Journalist gets suspended jail sentence after unfair trial

Read in Turkish / Türkçe An Istanbul criminal court yesterday gave Erol Özkoray, one of Turkey’s leading independent journalists, a suspended sentence of 11 months and 20 days in prison on a charge of defaming President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his book “ The Gezi Phenomenon .” The trial, which began on 20 March concluded in a completely irregular manner as neither Özkoray nor his lawyer, Sennur Baybuga, was present when the sentence was passed. Baybuga had asked for the final hearing to be postponed on health grounds. The duration of the sentence suspension imposed by the court was five years, meaning that Özkoray could be make to serve the jail term if convicted on another criminal charge at any time during the next five years. Özkoray was found guilty of defaming Erdogan under article 125 of the criminal code in his book about the “Occupy Gezi” protest movement, which the police crushed in the summer of 2013. He was prosecuted for including many of the anti-Erdogan graffiti that appeared during the protests – slogans such as “Don’t be an ass, listen to the people,” “You are disgraced, resign” and “Tayyip, it is not your fault you were born.” Özkoray said they deserved to be compiled for the collective memory, especially as a total of eight people were killed and around 10,000 were injured when the police repeatedly used violence to disperse the protests. “Özkoray’s conviction is designed to send a clear message to Turkey’s civil society,” said Reporters Without Borders assistant research director Virginie Dangles. “The authorities have made an example of Özkoray in order to deter all those who would like to follow his lead. By imposing this disproportionate sentence at the end of an unfair trial, the authorities have confirmed their determination to bring all of their critics in Turkish society to heel.” Winner of the 2014 prize for freedom of thought and expression that is awarded by the Turkish human rights group IHD, Özkoray is above all known for his articles about the army’s influence over Turkey’s politics. He was prosecuted more than a dozen times from 2000 to 2006, when he edited the Idea Politika website. All of these cases, in which he was usually charged with “denigrating the Turkish armed forces,” ended up being dismissed. This is his first criminal conviction. Turkey is ranked 154th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.