2023-10-05 19:00:35
İstanbul. AKP Diyarbakır Deputy Galip Ensarioğlu’s statement regarding PKK leader Öcalan, who was not allowed to meet with his lawyersThe state is constantly discussingTELE 1 editor-in-chief Merdan Yanardağ, who was arrested 100 days ago for criticizing the words “”, appeared before the judge. At the first hearing of the case in which Yanardağ was tried in detention with a request for a prison sentence of up to 10 years and 6 months, the court decided to sentence Yanardağ to 2 years and 6 months in prison and release him.
Yanardağ had been detained for 101 days on charges of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” and “praising the crime and the criminal”. In the indictment prepared for Yanardağ, for whom a prison sentence of up to 10 years and 6 months is sought, it is stated that “his statements, which consider the leader of the organization as a political prisoner and claim that he is being held hostage, will, in their entirety, legitimize the methods of the PKK/KCK armed terrorist organization involving force, violence or threats, or that the organization’s use of force, violence, It was stated that “it is of a nature to encourage the use of methods containing threats or threats.”
He was asked about his criminal record, he said, “I have a criminal record for the press.”
Speaking at the first hearing of the case held at Çağlayan Courthouse, Yanardağ stated that his aim was not to praise any terrorist organization and said, “This case is an intimidation to those who struggle to democratize Turkey.”
Responding to the question about whether he had a criminal record, Yanardağ said, “I have a criminal record,” and said the following in his statement:
“This case is a case of eliminating press freedom and dragging Turkey into an oppressive environment. My arrest is an intimidation of independent media. It is to intimidate society. I have been a journalist for 38 years. I am both the chairman of the board and the editor-in-chief of Tele1. The reason I am being tried is not for praising a terrorist organization. The reason I’m not here is because of Tele1’s broadcasts. The duration of the program I made was 50 minutes. I did not praise the crime and the criminal in this program. Whatever happened, I said ‘While Turkey is going to the holiday, the agenda is empty, I am a crazy journalist, let me create the agenda’. Could such a thing happen?
Assembly claim
Yanardağ said in the “4 Questions 4 Answers” program on TELE1 that Abdullah Öcalan’s isolation should be lifted, upon which the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) launched an investigation into the channel, and Yanardağ was arrested on June 27 as part of the investigation launched against him.
At the hearing, Yanardağ claimed that the prosecutor’s office had fabricated a crime by producing a second montage video and said, “I criticized the policies followed by the AKP government. “The result was as if I had praised Öcalan for no reason,” he said. Yanardağ demanded that the case be dropped, released and acquitted.
The prosecutor’s office requested Yanardağ’s continued detention and that he be punished for “terrorist organization propaganda”. The court sentenced Yanardağ to 2 years and 6 months in prison and ordered his release.
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