Turkey sentences pro-Kurdish newspaper bosses to six years' imprisonment

An Istanbul high court on Monday sentenced three officials of the pro-Kurdish leftist daily Özgür Gündem, which was shut down by court order in August 2016, to six years and four months in prison on terrorism charges, BirGün newspaper reported.  

They are prominent human rights lawyer Eren Keskin, the paper's editor-in-chief Inan Kizilkaya and publisher Kemal Sancili, convicted of "terrorist propaganda", "attempting to violate the unity of the state" and membership of an "armed organisation".  

Another editor of the newspaper, Zana Kaya, was sentenced to two years and one month in prison for "terrorist propaganda".  

"I have been in human rights movements for 30 years. I was tried many times and have been in prison for my way of thinking. But for the first time I am considered a 'member of an armed organisation'," Keskin tweeted. "I received a six-year sentence, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm here," she added.  

The activist was sentenced in 2018 to seven years in prison for "offences against the president" and "contempt for the Republic", following articles published in Özgür Gündem under her editorship.  

Before Özgür Gündem was shut down for alleged links to the Kurdish guerrilla Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the newspaper was subjected to several police raids on its staff, with more than 20 arrests.  

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International have repeatedly criticised the Turkish government for criminalising Özgür Gündem's journalists and activists.  

In 2019, RSF's representative in Turkey, Erol Önderoglu, was also prosecuted "for propaganda for a terrorist organisation" because he participated in a campaign in support of the pro-Kurdish daily.