MARDİN- In the hearing of Abdulkadir Turay who has been arrested for more than 2 years and who were sentenced to 9 years of prison time, the fact that he did not ask another question to the source and he did not wrote an article about the person who was taken under custody that he just learned considered to be a crime.
Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reporter Abdulkadir Turay and 9 other people were sentenced with 9 years of prison time on September 27 on charges of ‘being a member of an illegal organization’ and ‘Aiding an illegal organization’. In the reasoned decision, some phone call tapes and tips considered reason of arrest.
The court that did not consider Turay’s statement saying that the phonecalls are a part of his job, journalism, which he has been doing for 13 years and denied his phonecall with his relative Yusuf Erat is journalism.
The decision about the phonecall was like: “ Defendant’s phonecall on 15.04.2016, 11.33 : The defendant asks Yusuf if there’s something unusual in the village, tells him to go to the cafe, Yusuf telling him thah the gendermerie had come for something else, the defendant insists that this call is a part of journalism, the fact that he did not ask the source if someone was taken under custody, that it is unnatural he would ask why the gendermerie was there, so the phonecall is not about journalism..”
According to the justified decision Turay is sentenced to 9 years on charge of beng a member of an illegal organization and aiding an illegal organization.