Journalist in “Insult” Case Released from Prison

Faruk Aktas, owner of the regional Mus News newspaper in the east of Turkey, was sentenced to one year and nine months imprisonment after alleging that Mus’s former vice governor Ibrahim Kücük was involved in corruption.

Aktas was taken into custody in Istanbul on the evening of 12 February, after an ID check showed that there was an outstanding prison sentence.

Released after one day and two nights 

He was released from prison on 14 February, after a court released him. Aktas told bianet that the Mus 2nd Criminal Court had decided to consider the case according to the new Turkish Penal Code which came into effect on 1 June 2005.

After the Bakirköy Decree Prosecution applied to the Mus court, the case was reopened.

Aktas had been sentenced for two articles he had written; the first was entitled, “Robbery in the Province, Profiteering in the District”. The second article, published on 30 September 2003, was entitled “They only help their friends.”

Aktas was convicted of “insulting an official institution via the media”, under Article 264/2 of the old Turkish Penal Code on 14 April 2004. First he was  handed a sentence of 1 year and six months, but citing Article 80, the sentence was increased to 1 year and 9 months.

In 2007, 4 journalists detained 

Despite its reforms of the Penal Code in June 2005, Turkey has kept on regulations which violate press freedom.

In 2007, four journalists were taken into custody and later released under charges of insult or slander: Sinan Kara, the owner of the Datca News in south-west Turkey, Mustafa Koyuncu, editor of the Emirdag newspaper in western Turkey, and Sait Bayram and Firat Avci of the Söz TV and newspaper in Diyarbakir, south-east Turkey. (EÖ/TK/AG)