DİYARBAKIR – “Help us, give us information or we will darken your door more if you continue to work for them (Jin News Agency)” told the police to our reporters Durket Süren and Nurcan Yalçın and threatened our reporters. Durket and Nurcan will file a criminal complaint against the police officers.

 

Human Rights Association (İHD) Diyarbakır Branch held a press conference for our reporters Durket Süren and Nurcan Yalçın, who have faced threats from police officers. Free press workers, İHD members and our reporters Durket Süren and Nurcan Yalçın attended the press conference.

 

İHD Diyarbakır Branch chair Raci Bilici stated that they have faced many serous allegations and that they have had very serious applications in the recent period. Stating that the agencification policy is also imposed on the press and he demanded the chief prosecutor's offices to take necessary action.

 

‘They said they were appointed by the Interior Ministry’

 

After Raci’s speech, our reporter Durket Süren began to talk about what she had faced while being detained in Lice as follows; “I was taken into custody in Lice. Two people wanted to talk to me and they said they were appointed by the Interior Ministry. They said they wanted to talk to me in order to know what the people think. Then, they told me Jinnews was a wing of the PKK and we received instructions from Kandil. When they told me that I told them we didn’t have any connection with the PKK and I stopped talking. I was released under judicial control on March 5.”

 

‘He didn’t accept my request to go with my lawyer’

 

Noting that nothing ended after being released, Durket continued to speak as follows; “Then a man named ‘Cihan’ called me and he told me we had had a conversation when I had been in custody. I told him the custody wasn’t a place to have a conversation. I told him I didn’t have time and what I had said in custody was valid. I thought they would never call me again. But they called me yesterday again. The man called me told me his name was ‘Cihan’ and ‘they want to see me’.  He raised his voice when I told him ‘If it is very urgent, I will come there with my lawyer’.  I talked to my colleague Nurcan and they did same thing to her, too. We have therefore decided to file a criminal complaint against them.”

 

Threat from police to our reporters: We will darken your door more

 

Our reporter Nurcan Yalçın meanwhile stated that she was called on the night of May 4 and she was told she had to testify at Anti-Terror Branch in the morning. Nurcan went to the Anti-Terror Branch in the morning with her lawyer. Nurcan said, “My lawyer had something to do so she left the building. As she left, two people came and wanted to talk to me. They told me, ‘You are in cooperation with the terrorist organization.’ I told them I worked for a legal news agency. These two people told me, ‘Help us, give us information or we will darken your door more if you continue to work for them.’ They insisted on having tea together outside and I insisted on not having tea with them.”

 

Lawyer Pirozhan Karali said these practices have been imposed on not only the journalists but also on other segments. Pirozhan demanded all prosecutors and judges to take necessary action.