Kurdish journalist Ziya Ataman sentenced to 14 years in Turkey over PKK links
SIRNAK, Turkey Kurdistan,— Kurdish journalist and seriously ill inmate Ziya Ataman, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish DIHA news agency, was slapped with 14 years and two months for alleged “membership of a terrorist organization”, shorthand in this case for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The final hearing of 21 people, ten of whom have been arrested pending trial, was held at the ??rnak 1st Heavy Penal Court on Tuesday, September 24.
The arrested defendants were not taken to the court hall and their testimonies were taken via Audio and Visual Information System. The attorneys of defendants were present at court.
While he was in prison, Ataman had a series of serious health problems, his existing gastrointestinal disorders have deteriorated. Despite the medical reports of prison doctor, Ataman has not been operated.
Including a lengthy pre-trial detention period, Ataman has already spent three years in a maximum security prison in the southeastern city of Van as his health steadily deteriorated, his lawyer Zelal Dogan told Al-Monitor.
Announcing its judgement after the break, the court board has ruled that Ziya Ataman shall be sentenced to 14 years, 3 months in prison on charge of “membership of a terrorist organization”.
As an appeal can be lodged against the verdict, his lawyers have stated that they will appeal against the prison sentence.
The case fits a pattern of prosecution being used to intimidate numerous Kurdish and pro-Kurdish journalists working for outlets sympathetic to Kurds’ decades-long struggle for linguistic and political rights, and in some instances, to the PKK.
Ataman was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a rocket attack against Turkish security forces along side PKK rebels in the township of Beytusebap in 2015. The prosecution’s case rested on testimony provided by a witness identified in court solely by his initials for security reasons. The witness claimed to have seen Ataman take part in the attack, but he retracted his testimony last year. He did so again today in court, saying police officers extracted it from him under duress including torture.
The other piece of evidence was a notebook found on the person of a slain PKK rebel. The prosecution said it contained Ataman’s personal information including his date of birth, his home address and his mother’s name.
Dogan said, “It’s by now obvious to all that Ataman had nothing to do with the rocket attack, so prosecutors decided to sentence him to 14 years on the grounds that he is a PKK member, all based on the entry in a notebook whose authenticity cannot be independently verified.”
Frederike Geerdink is a Dutch freelance journalist who spent a year embedded with the PKK in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan and authored a book called “This fire never dies: One year inside the PKK.” She said some of the militants she met did indeed carry notebooks and diaries. “One of them said she had written about me in her diary, so it’s conceivable that others who encountered Ataman while he was carrying out his professional duties as a reporter met with him and recorded information about him.”
In a further twist, both the prosecutor and the judge who had ordered Ataman’s arrest were fired on the grounds that they were linked to Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher who is accused of engineering the failed 2016 coup to bloodily overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. DIHA was among the more than 130 media outlets that were banned in the aftermath of the coup.
Dogan said his legal team would appeal Ataman’s sentence at an appellate court before taking it to the Constitutional Court if need be.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Ziya Ataman, who was an intern correspondent at the Dicle News Agency (D?HA), was taken into custody in Turkey’s eastern province of Van in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur). Ataman, who was detained during news follow-up in Kuruba? Neighborhood in the district of Edremit in Van, was arrested on April 11, 2016.
He had eight hearings in the 1,185 days he spent behind bars. The Constitutional Court rejected his application. The judges and prosecutors who tried him were discharged in an investigation against the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ, held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt).
The upper limit for his arrest, which is two years as it is a case examined by a heavy penal court, has long been exceeded. But he is still behind bars at the Van High-Security Closed Prison. He is waiting for his next case which will be held at the ??rnak 1sy Heavy Penal Court on September 24.
Bar?? Oflas, the attorney of Ataman, told bianet the following:
“Ziya has been struggling with intestine diseases for many years. When he was outside, the disease was under control and he was being treated. After the entered prison, the disease began to grow under stress and prison conditions. He faces problems about going to the infirmary and the hospital.”
“After our efforts, Ziya was sent to the hospital. He was prescribed drugs but was not sent to hospital again although he needs to receive treatment regularly. His disease has progressed. He needs continuous treatment.”
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