Prosecutor Asks Zaman Editor To Be Sentenced To 17 Years

The İstanbul Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has filed a criminal lawsuit against Harun Çümen, the responsible manager and legal representative of the owner of Zaman, Turkey's largest daily, asking the court to sentence him to 17 years in prison for reporting on main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's speech about government corruption in Parliament.

The lawsuit alleged that by covering the opposition leader's remarks in which he disclosed the contents of an alleged telephone conversation between then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son, the newspaper violated the confidentiality and privacy of the communication. Çümen was also charged with being a member of an illegal group, though the name of the group was not specified.

The Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday informed Çümen that a lawsuit was launched against him over the newspaper's reporting of Kılıçdaroğlu's parliament speech during which he played the voice recordings that allegedly revealed that Erdoğan had instructed his son to hide large sums of money that were stashed in the family residence in İstanbul after a corruption investigation was made public on Dec. 17, 2013.

The Bakırköy Prosecutor's decision to take legal action came after the Bakırköy 2nd Penal Court of Peace reversed the prosecutor's initial decision to drop the investigation into the newspaper in May, citing a lack of legal grounds to pursue the complaint brought by Erdoğan's lawyers Ali Özkaya, Muammer Cemaloğlu and Burhanettin Sevencan against Çümen.

The system of the Penal Court of Peace is already controversial in Turkey as it was hastily introduced following graft probes that went public on Dec. 17 and 25 implicating senior government officials. These courts are granted extraordinary powers such as carrying out detentions, arrests, seizures of goods and search warrants without consulting with any other judiciary organs. In addition to these far reaching powers, it is also believed that the judges and prosecutors who were given positions in the new court were chosen on the basis of their loyalty to the government.

Hearing the appeal filed by Erdoğan's lawyers against the initial decision to discontinue the investigation into the newspaper, the Bakırköy 2nd Penal Court of Peace instructed the prosecutor to file a lawsuit and let the court decide on the evidence.

The case against Çümen will be heard in Bakırköy 2nd Court of First Instance.

Speaking to Today's Zaman, Çümen stressed that besides Zaman daily, all other prominent Turkish media outlets, including the Hurriyet, Milliyet and Ortadoğu dailies as well as other renowned news agencies reported Erdoğan's conversation with his son as played by Kılıçdaroğlu in Parliament.

He went on to say that the case filed against him is filled with false and groundless allegations. “This is an arbitrary legal action to intimidate free press. Reporting statements made by the main opposition party leader in Parliament about events that have implications for the public is just a routine job of the press media,” said Çümen.

Çümen's lawyer Hasan Günaydın said that leveling accusations against someone without grounding them on proper and concrete facts cannot be reconciled with a politician who is assuming a prominent public office. “Accusing someone of being a member of an illegal organization due to his coverage of parliamentary discussion is not a valid matter to be debated by the judiciary.”

A voice recording leaked in February, which allegedly features then-Prime Minister Erdoğan instructing his son to dispose of vast amounts of cash amid an ongoing corruption operation, sent shockwaves through the country, with opposition parties calling for the government to resign.

The Prime Ministry released a strongly worded statement on the leakage of recordings, claiming that the voice recording is spliced and "completely false." The Prime Ministry vowed in the statement to sue those who orchestrated this "dirty plot."

Main opposition party leader Kılıçdaroğlu called on Erdoğan to send the voice recordings to internationally reputable labs to assess the authenticity of the voice recordings if he was “honest.” Erdoğan never responded to Kılıçdaroğlu's demand.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli called the voice recording “mind-blowing” and urged top prosecutors and other judicial bodies to launch an investigation into the prime minister. He said Erdoğan should “not even think about” escaping blame by claiming that the tapes had been edited.

Proceedings against Çümen draws criticism from the public

The court ruling to initiate legal action against Zaman editor Çümen has drawn the ire of the public as non-governmental organizations raise concerns over the increasing restrictions on the freedom of the press.

Speaking to Today's Zaman, Turkish Journalists Federation (TGF) Chairman Atilla Sertel lashed out at the government, saying that the intensity of the government's crackdown on the press is unprecedented in Turkey's history. “This judicial proceeding is itself an action of intimidating press… If an individual, a party chairman speaks to the public, this naturally becomes a topic for a news report. How could it be deemed an unlawful act? Can there be such a non-sense? If they [the government] want to get rid of dissident reporters then let the government have all the dissidents executed.”

Speaking to Today's Zaman, the President of the Press Council Pınar Türenç called the legal action brought against Çümen as an effort to deter the press media from reporting freely.

“We see the intimidation of the press through judicial means as a dangerous development. We believe that an independent judiciary will deliver a judgment in favor of press freedoms," Türenç said.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)