Danish journalist Sultan Çoban sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison
Konya – Danish journalist Sultan Çoban’s first hearing regarding the charges of “terrorist propaganda” was held at Konya 8th High Criminal Court today. The court handed down a suspended 1 year 3 month prison sentence to Sultan Çoban for reposting photos on Facebook about civilians liberated from ISIS rule.
Journalist Sultan Çoban, Media and Law Studies Association Co-Director and Çoban’s lawyer Veysel Ok, Reporters without Borders (RSF) Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu, two representatives from the Danish Embassy, Martin Selsoe Sorensen from Danish TV2, as well as Çoban’s friends and family were present at the Konya Courthouse for the hearing.
The Presiding Judge asked Sultan Çoban whether the concerned Facebook account was indeed hers and she confirmed. The judge then read the attributed offenses and the concerned Facebook post out loud and asked for Çoban’s defense statement in response to the indictment.
“My post is actually a re-post of other other people who have shared these photos. They were taken by journalists working for international news agencies. They were symbolic photos about the liberation of civilians in a region previously under ISIS rule. Comments and other captions regarding the photo do not concern me. I shared these photos with the caption that says ‘powerful images’ in Danish. Comments and captions of others who have posted the photo before me and the phrase I used were probably translated via Google Translate before being included in the report,” Çoban said in her defense.
Adding that she was not notified of the investigation in any way, Çoban said: “I was taken in police custody as I was entering Turkey at Istanbul Airport and was informed of the investigation only then.”
The court asked journalist Sultan Çoban about her statements from the initial interrogation and inquired which media outlets she is working for. In relation to her initial interrogation, Çoban said, “I didn’t know the specific posts that were included in the investigation at that point and I had to defend myself in general terms.” Çoban stated that she works primarily for TV2, adding that she works for other Danish media outlets from time to time.
Lawyer Veysel Ok noted that his client’s posts were automatically translated from Danish into Turkish via Google Translate. Ok referred to a recent Constitutional Court judgement and stated that social media accounts cannot be identified without a court order, adding that this evidence is against the law and constitutes a violation of privacy. Ok demanded this police report to be excluded from the file.