İSTANBUL - Journalist Ferhat Çelik, who was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison for reporting the death of MİT personnel, stated that the court process was a threater and that they were punished to supress the free press. 

 

The court has sentenced Aydın Keser, Ferhat Çelik and Murat Ağırel to 4 years, 8 months and 7 days and Barış Pehlivan and Hülya Kılınç to 3 years and 9 months in prison for violating the Law on National Intelligence Organization (MİT). The time they spent behind bars while they were remanded in custody will be deducted from their sentences. Aydın Keser, Barış Pehlivan, Barış Terkoğlu, Eren Ekinci, Hülya Kılınç, Ferhat Çelik ve Murat Ağırel have been acquitted of "disclosing state information" as per Article 329 of the Turkish Penal Code. Terkoğlu and Ekinci have been acquitted of disclosing information and documents related to intelligence operations as per Article 27/3 of the MİT law. Considering the time Barış Pehlivan, Hülya Kılınç and Murat Ağırel spent in prison when they were remanded in custody, the court has ruled for their release with an international travel ban. Also, the judicial control measures imposed on Aydın Keser and Ferhat Çelik have been lifted.

 

Ferhat Çelik, Editor-in-Chief of Yeni Yaşam Newspaper, who was sentenced to prison, made evaluations regarding the trial process and the reasons for their punishment.

 

THEY ARE TRYING TO HIDE THE FACTS WITH OPPRESSION

 

Drawing attention to the pressure on the oppression, Çelik said: "“This could be a journalist, politician, artist, civil society activist or human rights defender. First of all, the person or persons are being targeted. Then the judiciary makes up a ground to arrest them and they get arrested. That is what happened to us."

 

Pointing out that the journalists who write the facts are targeted in Turkey, Çelik said: "There is a handful of journalists who oppose the AKP - MHP bloc, those who write about their inconceivable, mindless moves in foreign policy, their oppressive regime, their agitation about the economy, their tactic to throw money to their followers, the torture and injustices. These journalists have a target on their back and they are tried to be supressed by the government every chance they get. They are applying pressure by putting journalists in prison, closing down the TVs and newspapers and etc."

 

'THE DECISION WAS ALREADY MADE BEFORE WE STOOD TRIAL'

 

Stating that they wanted to be punished with up to 19 years in prison for both espionage and opposition to the MİT law, Çelik continued as follows: "They tried to punish us for a few lines of news article we published third hand. We repeated this every chance we got. In this case, as in many cases,the law was not applied. They wanted to punish us and they used this article for it. We underlined it to the court committee and prosecutors. The decision had already been made before we entered that court room. It was a theater. We did not make a legal defense because we knew that the case was political. Therefore, we tried to explain that this was a political case and we were targeted."