Pehlivan case: A journalist in prison while criminals are pardoned

And yet another journalist, Barış Pehlivan, is back in prison for the fifth time because of what he wrote in his newspaper. Journalist Merdan Yanardağ also remains in prison for what he said on screen, as the appeal against his detention was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Freedom of the press is under pressure not only through the judiciary but also through an economic siege.

During COVID-19 days, the petty offenders were freed on probation due to the pandemic. Today, August 15, is the last day before the COVID-19 release deadline for those individuals to reenter custody. However, individuals who are freed on probation during the pandemic will continue to be on probation according to a new law approved by the parliament. In a way, they are absolved. On the other hand, Pehlivan’s application for this law received no answer.

Those who are in prison for political reasons will not be among the more than 90 thousand people paroled due to the pandemic, which includes notorious criminal organisation leader Alaaddin Çakıcı. He was pardoned at the special request of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli to President Tayyip Erdoğan.

The independent Turkish judiciary had “suspended the execution” of Çakıcı’s conviction while he was out on health grounds, getting his affairs back on track.

In other words, Çakıcı would not have returned to prison anyway with the finalisation of his COVID-19 release, but journalist Pehlivan would have gone to prison.

Barış Pehlivan was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison in the case regarding the disclosure of the identity of the MİT member killed in Libya in his newspiece covering the funeral. He was released on probation after serving six months in prison.

“My probation was cancelled on the pretext of an article I wrote in Cumhuriyet newspaper. And it coincided with the publication of a book on former Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu,” he said to MLSA, before going into prison.

“If a law passed by the parliament of the Republic of Turkey concerns me and includes me, why can’t I benefit from its second paragraph?” he added, stating that the decision is politically motivated.

Pehlivan case: independence of the judiciary

According to the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, the number of imprisoned journalists has risen to 34 with the arrest of Yanardağ. As far as the government is concerned, none of them are being tried and convicted for what they have said or written, but for offences such as terrorism and espionage, which are not included in the scope of amnesty, as seen in authoritarian regimes.

Murderers, smugglers, thieves, and rapists can be pardoned, but journalists and politicians should remain in prison and be banned from politics, according to the Turkish judiciary, which is supposed to be independent according to the Constitution. Is it because they were seen as a threat?

Osman Kavala, who has always stood against the coup mentality, is sentenced to life imprisonment, Erdoğan and the judiciary see him as a threat. For him and Selahattin Demirtaş, neither the decisions of the Constitutional Court nor the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights are valid.

Hakan Altınay from the Gezi Trial, who said, “I did not even pick up a stone, let alone a gun,” is not being released even though the verdict against him is not finalised.

Can Atalay from the Gezi Trial was elected as an MP; despite his immunity, he is not released; he is considered a threat to the order.

Is that why Çakıcı is out, Yanardağ is in, and Pehlivan is next to him?

As the judiciary becomes politicised, freedom of the press remains in words.