Statement from P24 over Mezopotamya Agency’s report

Lawyer Melike Polat made a statement over a report published by the Mezopotamya news agency on June 10, 2018, which states that journalist Nedim Türfent has been misquoted by P24 due to “a misunderstanding.” In her statement, Polat said “all of the remarks attributed to Nedim Türfent in the news story… were made personally by Türfent during a visit” she had paid to him in prison.
 
Polat visited Türfent on June 11, 2018, at the High Security Closed Prison Facility in Van, where the journalist remains imprisoned, in order to collect information on his prison conditions. Türfent, a reporter for the shuttered Dicle News Agency (DİHA), was convicted to 8 years and 9 months in prison on December 15, 2017, on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization.”
 
Here is the statement by lawyer Melike Polat:
 
“All remarks attributed to Nedim Türfent in a news story posted on June 17, 2018, on the P24 website headlined ‘Türfent and Ataman complain about arbitrary practices in jail’ and bylined Melike Polat and Özgün Özçer, were made personally by Türfent during a visit I paid Türfent in the Van Maximum Security Prison on June 11, 2018.
 
“The information Türfent gave me during that visit concerning his prison conditions and the current phase of the legal process concerning the journalist were reported in the said news story exactly the way Türfent had expressed them, without any editorial additions or modifications.
 
“Türfent was sent to prison for pre-trial detention on May 13, 2016 and convicted on December 15, 2017. The trial court that convicted Türfent had rendered its reasoned judgment on January 2, 2018. I was glad to learn from the news story posted June 20, 2018 on the Mezopotamya news agency website, in which Nedim Türfent is quoted using the pronoun “we”, that the individual applications on his behalf before both the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights would finally be lodged later this month.
 
“I will be continuing to closely monitor the legal process concerning Türfent both personally and on behalf of the P24 (Platform for Independent Journalism) as I have been doing all along.”
 
P24’s report on Türfent’s and fellow DİHA reporter Ziya Ataman’s prison conditions can be accessed here. Mezopotamya Agency’s above cited report can be read here (in Turkish).