Medine Mamedoğlu
The trial of Hatice Şahin, a journalist with the pro-Kurdish Yeni Yaşam newspaper, on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” was postponed by the High Criminal Court in Diyarbakır, a city in southeastern Turkey. This was the third hearing in a retrial process that began after an appeals court overturned her initial conviction.
Şahin and her lawyer, Bahar Oktay, were present in the courtroom, along with observers from the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) and the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), who monitored the proceedings.
During the hearing, which began with identity verification, Şahin repeated her defense statement regarding the court’s earlier decision to merge her case with another file previously handled by the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court. She stated that she did not know the individuals who had made statements against her and reiterated her request for acquittal. Responding to names mentioned by the court panel, Şahin said, “I don’t know them.”
Her lawyer, Bahar Oktay, emphasized that the tipoff in the merged case was “abstract” and not substantiated by any findings linking it to her client. “There is no police determination indicating that this tipoff can be associated with my client. We request that this be evaluated accordingly. We will present our detailed defense statement after the prosecutor’s opinion is submitted,” she told the court.
The court postponed the hearing to May 5.
Background of the case
Hatice Şahin was among 145 individuals detained on October 9, 2018, in a wide-reaching investigation into the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), a civil society platform often targeted by Turkish authorities over alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She was released on October 19, 2018, under a travel ban.
The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted Şahin for “membership in a terrorist organization,” citing testimony from secret witnesses, her phone calls with news sources, and flight records between Diyarbakır and Istanbul as evidence.
On September 19, 2022, the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court sentenced Şahin to six years and three months in prison. However, the 9th Penal Chamber of the Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice overturned the verdict, noting that other investigations and ongoing trials involving Şahin were still underway. Following the appeals court’s decision, Şahin is now being retried.
