Critical academic survives jail term after she signed a petition lashing Ankara’s actions in Kurdish provinces

“I DON’T think I am guilty. I used my constitutional right.”

These are the words of Dr. Gülsün Güvenli to a panel of judges during her trial on Tuesday. She is accused of “making propaganda of a terror organization.”

She was accused of after she was put her signature to a bill known as “we will not be party to this crime.” The bill was signed by more than 1 100 academics who demanded an end to a blockade in south-eastern provinces. They issued a statement stating: “We will not be a party to this crime.”

During her court appearance, Dr Güvenli was sentenced to a year and three months in jail, but the announcement of the verdict was adjourned by the court.

“I used my constitutional right”

The final hearing was held in the 37th Heavy Penal Court at İstanbul’s Courthouse where Dr Güvenli was being tried without an arrestee.

The accused said: “I used my freedom of speech and in order to be regretful it should be a classification of offence. My acquittal should be given,” she said during one of the court’s recesses.

A probation of five years

When the trial ended, it was pointed out that because she has no criminal record and her good attitude, this allows for a positive opinion she will not ‘commit this crime again.’ The court also ordered her to undergo probation for five years.

The court also made reference to Article 231/8-c of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK), as it also imposed an obligation on Dr Güvenli to pay a condolence visit to the family of Judge Gökçen Çamur, wife of Ahmet Çamur, who lost his life following a Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) deadly attack in the eastern Turkish province of Hakkâri on August 15, 2015.

“I oppose to the killing and I signed the bill for this reason”

Following the court instruction, Dr Güvenli said it will be an honour (to visit the family). “I oppose to the killing and I signed the bill for this reason,” pointed our Dr Güvenli, but her words were not registered by the court.       

The court also ordered that pursuit of the ‘execution of court decision’ to be carried on by the Probation Branch Office.

A petition in early January 2016 by the Academicians for the Peace initiative, criticising the Turkish state’s political and military attacks against the Kurdish people, raised a red flag with its signatories stating: “We will not be a party to this crime.”

They wrote: “The Turkish state has effectively condemned its citizens in Sur, Silvan, Nusaybin, Cizre, Silopi, and many other towns and neighbourhoods in the Kurdish provinces to hunger through its use of curfews that have been ongoing for weeks. It has attacked these settlements with heavy weapons and equipment that would only be mobilized in wartime. As a result, the right to life, liberty, and security, and in particular the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment protected by the constitution and international conventions have been violated.”

Following the petition, a witch hunt was launched by Ankara where many academics were arrested. Some are still, to this day, imprisoned while others lost their university jobs.  

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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/02/13/critical-academic-survives-jail-term-after-she-signed-a-petition-lashing-ankaras-actions-in-kurdish-provinces/