Court lifts controversial sentence of posting Turkish flag online for 'terrorism propaganda'

Duvar English

The Turkish court that ordered Ruşen Fırat to post an image of the Turkish flag on her social media daily for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” on Dec. 29 rescinded the sentence upon the southeastern Diyarbakır Bar Association’s complaint.

The court had ruled that two images posted by Fırat in 2015 and 2016 were considered propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Fırat was revealed to be a granddaughter of Sheikh Said, the polarizing Kurdish figure executed in the early Republican period for leading a rebellion in southeastern Turkey. 

The Diyarbakır Bar Association had filed a complaint against the Criminal Court of Hınıs, the district in Turkey’s eastern Erzurum province. The Bar Association held that the judge violated duty requirements and legal provisions. 

The Bar Association stated that the court lifted the sentence with their judicial support.

Turkey’s Human Rights Association vice chair and activist Eren Keskin was among the critics of the punishment. “Not only the name but the soul of Esat Oktay Yıldıran roams the courtrooms,” she wrote about the sentence in a social media post, referring to the prison director infamous for torturing Kurdish prisoners at the Diyarbakır Prison in the 1980s.   

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