This week 40 people, including journalists, a filmmaker and academics, will go on trial for expressing their views.
Below is a schedule of this week’s trials:
Jan. 15, 2018 Monday
24 people including Kazım Kızıl, a video activist, photographer and documentary maker, will be on court for practising their freedom of assembly on Jan. 15, at the İzmir 33rd Criminal Court of First Instance. Twenty-three of the defendants were arrested for protesting against the results of the presidential referendum on April 16 last year.. Kızıl arrested while video-documenting the events, and he was released after three months in prison.
The defendants in this trial are charged with “insulting the president” and “opposition to the law on demonstrations and marches”.
Jan. 17, 2018 Wednesday
Yusuf Karataş, a trial for the socialist daily Evrensel will be heard on Wednesday at at the Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court. Karataş was detained for two months under an investigation into the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), an umbrella organization uniting various pro-Kurdish civil society organizations.
Jan. 18, 2018 Thursday
Ten academics who signed a declaration against security operations targeting civilians in Kurdish populated (dubbed the peace declaration) will be on trial this week. On Jan. 18, , four academics from İstanbul Technical University, two others from Yıldız Technical University , three from Marmara University and one from Özyeğin University will be tried at the İstanbul 35th High Criminal Court.
Jan. 18, 2018 Thursday
Another trial on Thursday will be that of directors Erutuğrul Mavioğlu, Çayan Demirel and an administrator from Batman Municipality for shooting and showing the movie Bakur (North, in Kurdish), which documented the lives of militants in three different Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases. The defendants are charged with terror propaganda.
Jan. 17, 2018 Wednesday
Professor İştar Gözaydın Savaşır will be on trial Wednesday at the İstanbul 27th High Criminal Court. She is charged with “memberhsip of a terrorist organisation”. The prosecutors claim that the academic has legitimized the FETÖ/PDY organization -- the acronym used for the FEthullah Gülen network by Turkish authorities, who claim that this group was behind the coup attempt of 15 July 2016 by appearing on the television channel Erzincan TV, which was shut down after the 2016 coup attempt.
