Charges against Istanbul-Based Armenian Newspaper Editor Not Dismissed

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.07.2006 15:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Court of Appeal of Turkey on July 11 confirmed
the verdict on the case of Istanbul-Based Agos Armenian newspaper
editor Hrant Dink. He will not be imprisoned, however will be under
the threat of deprivation of liberty for 5 years, as in case a new
"crime" is committed, another half a year will be added to the old
imprisonment term.

Past October ethnic Armenian citizen of Turkey Hrant Dink was sentenced
to 6 months of conditional imprisonment for a newspaper article
telling about massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. In
February representatives of Office of the Prosecutor General considered
Dink’s case at the Court of Appeal and arrived at a conclusion that
the article is not insulting. However, unexpectedly the court did
not take this conclusion into consideration and decided that the
accusation against Dink is grounded, reports BBC Russian Service.

In spite of a number of reforms in Turkey owing to talks on EU
accession, there are articles in the legislation, which provide for
punishment for insulting the Turkish nation, country’s armed forces
and judicial bodies, while the difference in definitions of criticism
and insulting is often vague.