Journalists being tried for “resisting police” and “insult” in a court session on 9 February complained of ill-treatment by police during a raid of the Özgür Gündem newspaper in 2016.
On 16 August 2016, 22 people -- mostly journalists -- were detained during a raid on the office of the pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem daily, which has since been shuttered. Those detained include the newspaper’s own journalists as well as others who were at the building to report on the raid.
Charges were brought against the 22 detainees on charges of “resisting public officers to prevent them from performing their duty” and “insult”, with the prosecutor seeking eight years and four months for them.
Tse defendantas in the case are Amine Demirkıran, Bayram Balcı, Burcu Özkaya, Davut Uçar, Doğan Güzel, Elif Aydoğmuş, Ersin Çaksu, Fırat Yeşilçınar, Gökhan Çetin (IMC TV, which was shut down by decree) , Gülfem Karataş (IMC TV) , Günay Aksoy, Hüseyin Gündüz, Kemal Bozkurt, Mesut Kaynar, Muharrem Ender, Önder Elaldı, Özgür Paksoy, Reyhan Hacıoğlu, Sevdiye Ergürbüz, Sinan Balık, Yılmaz Bozkurt (employee of Istanbul Chamber of Medicine) and Zeki Erdem.
In their testimonies, the courts said they didn’t resist arrest, or insult the police officers.
They also complained of ill-treatment including physical abuse.
Journalist Gülfem Karataş that she was hit with an iron chain on her back in police custody and was also threatened with rape by police officers.
The case was adjourned until 29 June.
