Turkey: journalists put in jail and released again over MIT law

Journalists Murat Ağırel, Barış Pehlivan and Hülya Kılınç, who were sentenced to prison for violating the Law on State Intelligence Services and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) by revealing the identity of a member of the office with their news, sent back to prison after the high court upheld their sentence.

Ağırel and Pehlivan released after their lawyer Hüseyin Ersöz made an application for their transfer on Feb. 15, Ersöz announced on his Twitter account.

Ağırel, Pehlivan and Kılınç were arrested on February 15 after the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice upheld the prison sentences given to five journalists for “disclosure by any means the identities, positions, duties and activities of MİT members and their families” by publishing the news about the funeral of a MİT member in 2020.

After the sentences were finalized at the higher court, Pehlivan and Ağırel went to the Istanbul Palace of Justice to surrender. They were brought to Silivri Prison afterwards. Hülya Kılınç was arrested in Manisa.

Journalists arrested in 2020, released after 6 months in prison

In March 2020, a lawsuit was filed against eight people, seven of whom were journalists, for disclosure of MIT member’s identity by covering the news about the member’s funeral.

The first hearing of the case was held at Istanbul 34th High Criminal Court in June 2020. The court decided to release detained journalists Barış Terkoğlu, Aydın Keser and Ferhat Çelik, and to continue the detention of Barış Pehlivan, Hülya Kılınç and Murat Ağırel.

In the second hearing held in September 2020, Kılınç, Pehlivan, Keser, Çelik and Ağırel were sentenced to prison for the crime of “disclosure of the identities, positions, duties and activities of MİT members and their families by any means”.
Terkoğlu and Manisa Akhisar Municipality Press Unit Employee Eren Ekinci were acquitted.

In the same hearing, journalists Pehlivan, Hülya Kılınç and Murat Ağırel were released after six months of detention.

The lawyers objected to the decision of the Istanbul 34th High Criminal Court.
The 3rd Penal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice evaluated the appeal and upheld the prison sentence against the journalists. A notification was sent to the journalists to surrender to the prosecutor’s office.

After the notification, Pehlivan and Ağırel went to the Istanbul Courthouse and surrendered. Kilinc was arrested in Manisa.

This news is updated on February 15 at 21:00 GMT+3