”A crime is not a secret”

Turkey has become notorious as a country that gobbles journalists, throws them in prison and throws away the key; however, while being a journalist may be hard, being a lawyer that defends them might be even harder.

While journalists have their pen — or rather, keyboard — to fight against injustice, lawyers are without a weapon when laws have been abandoned entirely in court. Around 30 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey right now based on an array of accusations such as producing terrorist propaganda, espionage and inciting the public to armed conflict.

Lawyer Veysel Ok hit the ground running with his career when he became the attorney for the controversial Taraf daily, which he only left earlier this year and joined the team of the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) as its legal advisor. He recently visited the infamous Silivri Prison, which is currently housing famed journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül of the Cumhuriyet daily, Cevheri Güven and Murat Çapan from the magazine Nokta and Mehmet Baransu from the Taraf daily.

Ok explained that Dündar, Gül and Baransu are in prison for the same reason: reporting the news. Baransu, who was arrested nine months ago, was the Taraf reporter who published documents in 2010 unveiling purported plans for the military to stage a coup against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in 2003. Dündar and Gül, on the other hand, were arrested late last month for articles published on Cumhuriyet's front page in May and June 2015 that reported on gendarmes who intercepted National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks on two occasions in January 2014 where they were sending illegal arms to support rebel Syrian forces. They are now being tried for espionage and revealing confidential documents based on these articles. In both cases, the journalists are being tried for revealing crimes by the military and the government to the public.

“A crime is not a secret. This is a universal rule,” Ok stated, later adding: “According to the laws governing MİT, it has no right to send arms like that unless there has been a decision by the Cabinet to do so — but there was no such decision. And when MİT trucks are sending arms, this is news.”

“Their arrest is simply a political decision made by a judge of a Penal Court of Peace; this judge is making decisions completely independently of the law,” he noted.

The 31-year-old lawyer's entire career thus far has more or less been defending the right for free speech and press in Turkey, which he fervently believes is entirely non-negotiable. His position is a problematic one for regardless of what he does, he knows he is essentially powerless in the face of a judge with an agenda other than that of seeking justice. Regardless of how tenacious a defense one gives, it seems the fate of journalists is a written prophecy based on political motives.

“The other day, I was speaking with a journalist and I told him that he should not give a defense to a judge from a Penal Court of Peace. That's the advice I give now: Don't give a defense because it's entirely ineffective. If you look at the appeal made by Can Dündar's lawyer, you will see it's five sentences long,” the attorney explained.

He was wrong; actually, the appeal to the İstanbul 7th Criminal Court of Peace is all of three sentences: “We were doing our duty, and are appealing the warrant for our arrest, which is in violation of the Constitution, laws, the [European Convention on Human Rights] ECHR and the [European Court of Human Rights] ECtHR. The rest is on you. The choice and responsibility is yours.”

Today's Zaman

Ok is also the lawyer for Nokta's Editor-in-Chief Cevheri Güven and Managing Editor Murat Çapan, who were arrested in November on charges of violating Article 214 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which deals with the crimes of disrupting society and inciting one group of people to commit violence against another. For Nokta, he wrote a 36-page appeal, only to receive the same fruitless outcome.

Although he's worn out, particularly from his Taraf days, the lawyer is not entirely without hope. “The ECtHR is most sensitive to the right of freedom of expression. Beyond arresting a journalist, they see the opening of an investigation against a journalist as a violation of rights,” Ok explained.

Turkey must follow international law and the ECHR so “even if we do not see hope in the condition of Turkey's domestic judiciary, these cases will one day be tried by international courts; they will be tried by the ECtHR,” Ok assured.

Tags: cevheri güven, murat çapan, nokta, veysel ok