AMED-  The second hearing of Dicle Müftüoğlu, the imprisoned co-chair of AMED - Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, will be held on January 18. Müftüoğlu's lawyer Resul Temur said: "What is being tried here is the legal journalistic activities themselves."

 

Dicle Fırat Journalists Association Co-chair and MA editor Dicle Müftüoğlu, who was detained and arrested together with Mezopotamya Agency (MA) editor Sedat Yılmaz in Amed on April 29, 2023, within the scope of an investigation carried out by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, has been prisoned in Sincan Prison for approximately 9 months. The indictment prepared against Müftüoğlu on the allegations of "being a member of a terrorist organization" and "establishing and managing a terrorist organization" was accepted by the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court.

 

41 pages of the 43-page indictment consisted of "the general structure and functioning of the PKK and KCK" and the statements of secret and open witnesses regarding this functioning. These witnesses include open and secret witnesses named "Kerem Gökalp", "Sami Baran" and "Ulaş" in the closure case filed against the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Kobanê Case, as well as MA, who was arrested in an Ankara-based investigation and released at the first hearing. and a secret witness named "K8Ç4B3L1T5", who also made statements about Jinnews reporters. Witnesses "Kerem Gökalp" and "K8Ç4B3L1T5" accused Müftüoğlu of being a "PKK staff" in their statements.

In addition to Müftüoğlu's trips abroad, phone calls with colleagues, even his social life was added to the indictment as evidence of a crime.

 

At the first hearing held at Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court on December 7, 2023, it was decided to continue Müftüoğlu's detention due to the failure to hear witnesses.

 

Resul Temur, the lawyer of Müftüoğlu, who will appear before the judge for the second time on January 18, spoke about the accusations against his client and the trial process.

 

'PERSONS CHANGE BUT THE ALLEGATIONS ARE THE SAME'

 

Stating that similar accusations and allegations were made against her client Müftüoğlu and Kurdish journalists who were detained and arrested, Resul Temur said: “Therefore, the person changes each time, but the structure, framework and form of the allegations do not change. This also shows us the state's orientation towards Kurdish journalists. There is a predetermined, designed template, and even if people change, the allegations do not change." 

Pointing out that in the indictment, even the fact that Müftüoğlu was in Dersim at one time was interpreted as "terrorist organizational activity", Temur said: "She went to Dersim to follow a festival. While following the festival, she interviewed some thinkers and artists there and these were published. However, instead of investigating these interviews or adding them to the file, an inference was made as if he was there for illegal reasons. Not a single piece of evidence is presented in the file to ground this claim. The prosecutor's office is aware that there is no authority to supervise it when it acts together with the law enforcement. She moves with the ease of this. No one will turn around and say to the prosecutor, 'Why did you arrest this person based on allegations?' Since she knows that this will not be done, she can easily interpret what he wants in a way that will get results in his favor."

 

'THERE IS MANIPULATION'

 

Lawyer Temur stated that the fact that her client stayed in a hotel in Istanbul with her father was added to the indictment with a comment saying, "she stayed in the same hotel with the members of the terrorist organization". Temur said: “However, if the investigation authority looks at the records, they will clearly see that Müftüoğlu is staying with her father. Despite this, ignoring her father in those records, seeing only Dicle Müftüoğlu staying in that hotel, and making an organizational comment on her clearly shows how malicious they are and how they manipulated the file."

 

'A MADE-TO-MADE STATEMENT WAS TAKEN'

 

Temur said that one of the file witnesses, Kerem Gökalp, had no statements about Müftüoğlu in his first statements, and pointed out that after a certain period, Gökalp was taken to Ankara to receive statements that he described as "order" and statements were taken regarding some files.

 

Temur stated the following regarding this situation: “Again, to reinforce this statement of the witness, the prosecution presents Dicle Müftüoğlu's passage to the Federated Kurdistan Region to follow the referendum held in 2017 as evidence in the file. The signed news that Müftüoğlu made from there, her purpose of departure and the evidence of the news she made were presented to the court. This is exactly where journalistic activities are manipulated and portrayed as terroirst organizational activities."

'THE SECRET WITNESS IS WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE STATE'

 

Temur noted that MA, which operates legally, was portrayed as an illegal publication by the investigation authority and law enforcement, and that the statement of the open and secret witness that "Müftüoğlu was operating at a responsible level in MA" was not independent of this and said: "This shows the following. The secret witness speaks as the figure of the police, that is, she does not rely on the knowledge and experience she has gained from himself. The secret witness was previously heard in the file of 10 Kurdish journalists arrested in Ankara, and upon a question asked, she stated that she was working with the state. We are talking about someone who is an agent working on behalf of the state. As a matter of procedure, it is not unusual for anyone to be appointed in this way. Either this person is a police officer, or if she is not a police officer, such an assignment is not legal. The way the secret witness is formed and the statements of the secret witness should not be taken as basis in the file."

 

'JOURNALISM IS BEING ON TRIAL'

 

Temur said that another piece of evidence in the indictment that cannot be established as a cause-effect relationship is the MASAK report, and emphasized that in the report, Müftüoğlu's earning money by working, sending or receiving money to her family is considered "terrorist organizational activity". Temur underlined that even the fact that her brother sent money to her client was made a subject of accusation. Temur said: “When we consider all of this evidence together, it is clear that Dicle Müftüoğlu did not have any actions or activities within the scope of the file other than the journalistic activities subject to the file. What is being tried here is the legal journalistic activities themselves."

 

'ARREST TURNS INTO PUNISHMENT'

 

Stating that the arrest, which was a precautionary measure, was turned into a punishment for his client, Temur said: "We see that one of the main purposes of keeping journalists arrested for a long time is to keep them away from journalistic activities, to intimidate them and to make them unable to do their job at this point."