Analysis of the indictment against journalist Ayça Söylemez
PEN Norway has studied the indictment against journalist and human rights defender Ayça Söylemez as part of our Turkey Indictment Project.
The indictment was studied by legal expert Florian Bohsung on behalf of PEN Norway.
Ayça Söylemez’s case:
Journalist and human rights defender Ayça Söylemez from Turkey was on trial because of a news story she wrote for BirGün Newspaper on 18 February 2020 with the title “Talented Mr. Judge”. In the article she discusses cases handled by Akın Gürlek, the current Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor, who was president of the 37th High Criminal Court in Istanbul at the time.
Gürlek made a complaint against Söylemez, and she was later charged “marking as targets the people who are in charge of the fight against terrorism” under the Anti-Terror Law. PEN Norway has been following Ayça Söylemez’s trial since 2020, and attended her trials. Söylemez was acquitted on 19 March, 2024.
PEN Norway’s Turkey Indictment Project:
PEN Norway’s Turkey Indictment Project has since 2020 brought together legal experts and academics from Turkey and Europe to study indictments in cases of journalists and civil society actors in Turkey.
The experts have compared the indictments to the requirements set out in Turkey’s Penal Code, and the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Guidelines for Prosecutors. The findings illustrates that the indictments do not meet national or international legal standards.
