"Criminal" Politician Alınak Sentenced to 1 Year in Jail

The Erzurum 2^nd High Criminal Court sentenced politician Mahmut Alınak to imprisonment of one year under charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the militant Kurdistan Workers Party, because he invited the Kurdish people to civil disobedience in a program on pro Kurdish ROJ TV, broadcasting from Belgium.

The court in the north-eastern province of Erzurum pronounced the judgement for former Democratic Party (DEP) member Alınak on 11 May. The sentence was based on "talks broadcasted by the television channel ROJ TV that contained propaganda for a terror organization. The broadcast of ROJ TV directed the viewers towards the armed PKK terror organization".

Court: freedom is limited when necessary

The Erzurum court drew attention to Alınak's statement voiced on 5 September 2008. The decision said that freedom of expression "could be limited if necessary, i.e. in case of protecting the national security, the unity of the country and the public security, when defending the public order and preventing disobedience of the law".

Alınak had said on ROJ TV, "If the General Staff had put forward the idea of stopping their military operations, there would certainly not have been any incident in Bezele and not that many people would have died. [...]. The PKK had announced a ceasefire, no steps at all were taken within six years. [...] In events of our political party we will sing the (Kurdish) 'ey rakip' (oh my enemy) march and will sing also sing the international anthem in Kurdish. This will also be a message for the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party]. We should definitely start our social march and we have to turn every place we visit into a place of uprising. Current history should be defined by civil disobedience and this sort of strain that applies social pressure".

No mitigation of punishment for "past criminals"

For this speech, Alınak was convicted of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization" under article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. The sentence was not mitigated due to his previous "criminal record".

Evaluating the decision, Alınak recalled Prime Minister Erdoğan's recent statement made on television that 'there is freedom of thought in this country. Everybody can say and write what they want'. "He looks into our faces and tells us lies", Alınak criticized. (EÖ/VK)