Derya Ren 

 

DİYARBAKIR– Lawyer Resul Temur stated that 3 objections to the detention of 16 journalists held in prison for more than 3 months were rejected, will take the file to the Constitutional Court.

 

As part of the investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, on June 8, JINNEWS, Pel, Piya and Ari production companies and the homes of Kurdish journalists were raided. 22 people, 20 of whom are journalists, detained as part of the operation, were transferred to Diyarbakır Courthouse on June 15, after an 8-day detention period. Among those brought to court, 16 journalists out of 21 were arrested on 16 June.

 

Three objections to the detention of 16 journalists were rejected, including Jinnews News Director Safiye Alağaş. Layer Resul, said that they could not get any results from the applications they made, told that they will brought the file before Constitutional Court.

 

'The right to a fair defence is denied'

 

Resul said that the journalists have been in prison for more than 3 months and added the biggest problem they faced during their detention was "not being able to access the file.” Resul said, “When the file cannot be accessed, you have a correspondence and knowledge problem. Basically, anyone who has been detained, arrested, or prosecuted must be able to access and see the file to defend themselves effectiveley. However, the fact that there has been a 'restriction' decision in the file for more than 3 months and that access to the file has been prevented also prevents the right to an effective defence. Journalists were not accused of a crime directed at them since their arrest. Journalists have been prosecuted for their journalistic activities and television programs."

 

'We are considering applying to the Constitutional Court '

 

Resul, who stated that during the 3-month period that the journalists are being held in prison, must be regularly examined by the Criminal Judgeship of Peace every month and said, “The third examination was done this month. However, all 3 applications were rejected with the usual stereotype reasons that did not go into the details of the file, and the continuation of their detention was decided. None of the objections made by the lawyers against them were considered within the scope of the file. And again, with generally accepted expressions, the objections with printed expressions were also rejected. Therefore, it turns out that there is no mechanism to apply. The fact that the file is not examined, that the same printed statements are constantly recorded in the minutes also indicate how effective the proceedings were carried out during the detention period, and that there is an effort to bypass the process. Because of this, we cannot get results from any of our applications. For this reason, we are considering applying to the Constitutional Court for all journalists in the upcoming days against the arrests.”

 

'Decision is made to continue the detention of journalists'

 

"One of the reasons for the arrest of journalists arrested within the scope of the file was not related to the scope of the file, but before the investigation was started, the statements of public and anonymous witnesses who gave statements independently of the arrested journalists were tried to be associated with journalists by taking them out of the context of the parts related to the press," said Resul. This was the official reason for the arrest. But we learned about this during the trial. Since the statements of these open and anonymous witnesses are not in the scope of the file, they are excluded from the file because they are not related to the case or the journalist on trial. The court decided that there is no need for them to be heard. In other words, the continuation of the detention of journalists were decided with the statements of open and anonymous witnesses that the courts will not need to listen to in the future. This leads to a violation of the right to a fair trial.”