FIRST CONVICTION AFTER THE AMENDMENT IN THE ARTICLE 301

Sabah
June 19 2008
Turkey

The first person to be convicted of the amended Article 301 in the
Turkish Criminal Code is publisher Ragıp Zarakolu. The court did
not deem it necessary to apply to the ministry.

The director of Belge Publishing House, Ragıp Zarakolu, has received
a five-months jail sentence due to the publishing of a book which
covers the Armenian issue, entitled "Reality will Emancipate us,"
becoming the first person to be convicted of Article 301 after it
was amended on May 8th. The court has sentenced Ragıp Zarakolu to
time in prison for "insulting and deriding the government" and had
concluded on a jail sentence of five months then converted the charge
to a monetary fine. The court did not deem it necessary to receive new
permission from the ministry as it had already acquired the license
from the Ministry of Justice four years prior.

–Boundary_(ID_7jJv6YXjafAwfsJJ50YX8A)–