Indictment against Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and Çayan Demirel for directing the film Bakur
«A mere political declaration is not enough to represent a technical accusation.»
The fact that the indictment is generic is a symptom of how it derives from and limits itself to a political declaration. Just as it cannot support a technical defence, a mere political declaration is not enough to represent a technical accusation.
Ezio Menzione has reviewed the indictment. You can read the full report here:
Summary of Case / Background Information
1. Journalist Ertuğrul Mavioğlu and film-maker Çayan Demirel co-directed the documentary Bakur, picking up moments from the life of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK/KCK) brigades operating in South-East Turkey, that is, in the Kurdish territory of Turkey. Following the subjects over a period covering the different seasons, the documentary was shot live in 2013. It was scheduled to premiere on 12.04.2015 at the Istanbul Film Festival, but the authorities blocked it because no application had been made for the necessary entry in the dedicated public registry, resulting in failure to obtain the relevant licence. The documentary was then aired at several foreign festivals, earning success and recognition.
Still lacking the necessary licence, during the following month (namely on 06.05.2015) the documentary was shown in the hall of a cultural centre in the city of Batman, close to the Syrian border.
2. This marks the start of the judicial issue we are focussing upon. In relation to the documentary, the Public Prosecutor’s office in Batman brought an indictment against the two directors for disseminating propaganda in favour of terrorism, invoking the 1st and 2nd subparagraphs of Article 7/2 of Anti-terror law No. 3713, aggravated by the use of an audio visual medium (cinema) for such purpose.
The Court holding territorial jurisdiction rejected the charge twice for procedural reasons before holding the trial against the two directors after admitting the charge.
Mavioğlu was heard during the investigation stage and pleaded not guilty, invoking the right of assertion of thought and expression.
Demirel issued a very short statement to the Court, pleading not guilty because he had acted in the exercise of a constitutionally guaranteed right, and he didn’t even understand why he had been brought to trial. Although he had been severely ill and suffering from serious mobility problems since March 2015, essentially unable to move, he still appeared twice before the judges.
The trial of first instance ended on 18.07.2019, with the two defendants sentenced to 4 years 6 months (minimum sentence 3 years, brought to the above period because an aggravating circumstance had been found and applied).
Currently, an appeal against the ruling of the Court of Batman is pending before the Gaziantep Regional Court of Appeal.
3. The PKK is classified as a terror organisation by the Turkish judicial system, by Europe and by the USA, but not by the UN. Between 2013 and 2015, talks were held between the Turkish Government and the organisation, which had chosen to lay down arms and start a process which was supposed to result in the administrative autonomy of the Kurds and, therefore, peace between the Turkish and the Kurdish people. Such process – the Dolmabahçe Agreements – was abruptly interrupted in early 2015 following a unilateral decision by the Government of Turkey, which resumed the “hunt” against PKK members with extremely serious repercussions on the civilians in the Kurdish territory of Turkey.
4. We will examine the indictment against Mavioğlu and Demirel, which has led to their conviction in terms of their right to freedom of expression in general, but firstly by examining the indictment in the light of domestic Turkish legislation, in the context of a series of judgements of the Turkish Constitutional Court, and finally in the context of International legislation – more specifically, the principles expressed by the ECtHR, which has repeatedly examined Article 7/2 of Law No. 3713.
This report is a part of PEN Norway’s Turkey Indictment Project. Read the reports from the 2020 project here.
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