AMED - The visitors of the 16 journalists arrested in Amed, were removed from the visiting list due to being found "undesirable'. Attorney of the journalists Resul Temur described the decision as a "second punishment".

 

The visitors of the 16 journalists who were arrested on June 16 as part of the investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, were removed from the visitors' list on grounds of being found "undesirable". As of this week, Diyarbakır 1 and 2 High Security Prison Administration and Observation Board has blocked friends and colleagues who have been visiting them for a while. "Security investigation" was cited as the reason for the collective removal of the visitors from the visitor list. Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) Co-chair Serdar Altan, Editor-in-Chief of Xwebûn Newspaper Mehmet Ali Ertaş, journalists Ömer Çelik, Zeynel Abidin Bulut and Mazlum Güler could not exercise their right to be visited this week.  The journalists' lawyer, Resul Temur, described the decision as a "second punishment".

 

'IT IS AGAINST THE LAW'

 

Stating that the prosecutor's office still hasn't prepared the indictment even though the journalists are in prison for 145 days, Temur said: "The journalist friends of Ömer Çelik, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Mazlum Güler and Serdar Altan aren't allowed to visit their colleagues. The prison administration says these people are "undesirable". This happens because they are Kurdish. The reason why these journalists were found undesirable was not cited in the decision. It is against the law. And it is a second punishment."

 

Temur stated that they will apply to the execution judge against the unlawfull decision.