Sendika.org’s editor, Ali Ergin Demirhan, was sentenced to pay a judicial fine of 7 thousand lira for publishing a piece of news about the war Turkey is involved in Syria.

While Turkey is the top country with the number of journalists in prison, Turkish prosecutors, with orders from the government, are opening more investigations against the media, writers, journalists, and reporters.

The Criminal Court 24 in Istanbul held the session against the editor Demirhan. The charge then against the editor was making “terrorist propaganda.” However, during the trial, the judges and the prosecutor decided to change the charges against the accused. The attorneys for Demirhan demanded the case be dropped due to changing of the charges. The court rejected this request and convened the last session of the case yesterday.

The reporters from P24 and Press in Arrest were present and observed the proceedings during the trial.

The sentence, “The war in Syria is waged for Erdoğan to construct his dictatorship,” was the cause of the accusation that Demirhan insulted the president.

The editor’s lawyer Sevgi Dutar argued that in recent months there was a noticeable increase in the number of cases brought by the prosecutor for the “crime” of “insulting the president.’

It is noteworthy that Erdoğan patted himself in the back for his new proposal in extended human and individual rights only a few days ago. He gleefully boasted that he was broadening democracy and civil rights. However, the increase in charges and imprisonments of opposition figures, writers, and politicians, flies in the face of such bragging.

The other Lawyer for Mr. Demirhan argued that the politicians should tolerate criticisms by listing a series of events and complaints worldwide where politicians were subject to condemnations without charges brought against the complainers.

This is the third-time Ali Ergin Demirhan is sentenced for news and commentary for the same crime, insulting the president.

He was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days for a Tweet in June of 2018; and for a year, two months, and 17 days for six Tweets. All charges were for “insulting the president.”

When a report detailing the attacks against the civilians in Turkey’s Kurdish towns by the Turkish forces was published in 2015, Demirhan was sentenced to 1 year and three months of imprisonment for “terrorist propaganda.”

The court converted the latest prison term to paying a very high monetary amount instead of imprisonment.

Sendika.org News (MB)