Sunday, April 29, 2012

Court story of two reporters, one is working for state intelligence service

Ruşen Çakır 
20th of April, 2012
Ruşen Çakır wrote about an imprisoned reporter and the court’s blatant injustice:

I received a letter from our daily’s young reporter Çağdaş Ulaş who was arrested on invalid grounds for ongoing Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) case. He laments about his innocence. In one word it is gut-wrenching.

Cagdaş talks about a conversation with Mustafa Özer, Ajans France Press reporter who were detained for a while and immediately released. Both of them were convicted on the same grounds in the same inquisition.  I quote him:  

“I met with Mustafa Özer, where I was put in a cell at Court House to wait for the prosecutor. He told me that he went to Kandil[1] many times, he was taken many pictures with Murat Karayılan under the posters of Abdullah Öcalan and he said all these photos can be found in his computer’s hard disk. He was very anxious and saying that “I will definitely be arrested.” I told him that I felt upset to be arrested for nothing, just due to a talk I made with someone, I was not related with the organization and I reported many times critically about the PKK. Upon this, he said “don’t worry, you did nothing, you are the one to be released first.” However, it didn’t come true. He was released first, I am still in prison!”

We know why the court immediately released Özer, as he has been working for State Intelligence Department (MIT) for years. He was in relation with PKK and its entourage and he worked in MIT's command. But we haven’t understood the reason for Cağdaş’s arrest and his long detainment yet. We need to go beyond submissive requests for justice. As his colleagues we must mobilize against state’s arbitrary journalist arrests on the pretence of terrorist activity.   

Read Ruşen Çakır in Turkish here
For Mustafa Özer's confession visit here 


[1] Kandil is the name of a mountain range near the Turkey-Iraq-Iran tripoint, where the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is known to be based (Translator’s note).