Nine people are standing trial for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” over the daily’s articles and reports published at Özgür Gündem daily, which was closed as per a Statutory Decree during the State of Emergency.
On 21 May 2019, The Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court convicted the Özgür Gündem’s former co-editor in chief Eren Keskin of “propagandising for a terrorist organisation” under Article 7(2) of the Anti-Terror Law and sentenced her to 3 years and 9 months in prison. The trial against her was related to the articles published in Özgür Gündem.
The final hearing in the trial of Keskin was held on 21 May 2019 at the 14th High Criminal Court of Istanbul.
The court has ruled Ayşe Batumlu and Reyhan Hacıoğlu shall be each sentenced to 1 year, 3 months; Eren Keskin and Reyhan Çapan to 3 years, 9 months; Hüseyin Aykol to 2 years, 1 month; Hüseyin Güçlü and Tahir Temel to 1 year, 6 months in prison for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization”
To date, 143 lawsuits have been filed against Eren Keskin. Some of them have been merged by the courts. On 30 March 2018, the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced the human rights defender to 7,5 years in prison in relation to articles published in Özgür Gündem when she was the co-editor-in-chief. She was charged with “degrading the Turkish nation, the Republic, institutions and organs of the state” under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code, and “Insulting the President of the Republic” under Article 299 of the Turkish Criminal Code. She was also ordered to pay a cumulative fine of 72.000 TRY (approximately 10.000 euros), while an additional fine of 460.000 TRY (approximately 65.000 euros) remains under review by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court
