MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Erhan Akbaş – trial for “insulting” Erciş Municipality’s former trustee Mehmet Şirin Yaşar
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Erhan Akbaş
CITY
Van
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2017
LAST UPDATED
06/12/2019
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Print Media
Newspaper
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Criminal Courts
Approval of the indictment and initiating the prosecution
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 125/3

Journalists İdris Yılmaz and Erhan Akbaş, who were taken into custody in October 2017 in Erciş Hospital where they sheltered after they were attacked by the contractor Şahin Yağar and his relatives, when they went to Erciş District in Van to report on allegations of corruption, were on trial at the 2nd Court of First Instance in Erciş, Van, for allegedly “insult” over their news articles through which they criticized former trustee of Erciş Municipality Mehmet Şirin Yaşar.

İdris Yılmaz is in Elazığ No:1 Prison and Erhan Akbaş is pending a trial. The case was adjourned until 14 November 2018.

They were acquitted from “insult” by the 2nd Court of First Instance in Erciş on April 17, 2019 (vanekspres.com)