MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed - Lawyer Merve Nur Doğan, who was targeted by the mainstream media outlets for days as a "the lawyer of the PKK” for allegedly being in pictures found in digital materials that were buried underground during a military operation in Amed in October 2020, has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison. Merve Nur Doğan was tried by the Diyarbakır 10th High Criminal Court on the charges of “being a member of a terrorist organization”.

She could only attend the final hearing

After the pictures were served by media outlets, Merve Nur Doğan was taken into custody while going to the law office on October 7, 2020, as part of an investigation launched by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. She was sent to Diyarbakır Women's Closed Prison on October 9.  Then, she was transferred to Tarsus Women’s Closed Prison. She attended the five hearings of the trial against her through the audio-visual information system (SEGBIS) from the prison. She was brought from the prison to the final hearing. And she made her defense speech in the Zazaki dialect of the Kurdish language.

The indictment prepared against her included the statements of a witness, the pictures, and her cell phone records. According to the cell phone records, her cell phone signal was detected on all days throughout 2018 except the day, the pictures were taken. In her defense, Merve Nur Doğan stated that the person in the pictures was not her, she was added to the pictures using Photoshop and she stood trial because her cell phone signal was not detected for a day.

The witness said "I know her for 50 percent”

“I know her for 50 percent,” the witness, whose statements were included in the indictment, said in his statement. And all the demands of her lawyers were also rejected by the court. At the final hearing, Merve Nur Doğan was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison on charges of “being a member of a terrorist organization”. Merve Nur Doğan was targeted by the mainstream media for days during her detention.