MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – Journalist Nurcan Yalçın was detained in a raid on her home on February 4 as part of an investigation launched against her for a video interview she took from women sitting in front of the barricade before the 24-hour curfews declared in Amed's Sur district between 2015 and 2016.

On September 22, she was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on charges of “aiding a (terrorist) organization knowingly and willingly” by the Diyarbakır 4th Criminal Court. In the reasoned decision of the sentence, while the questions asked by Nurcan Yalçın to women were seen as encouraging uprising, violence, and Nurcan Yalçın was accused of morally supporting the (terrorist) organization in her reports. The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, has applied to the Turkish Court of Cassation to review the verdict claiming that the prison sentence given to the journalist is insufficient.

The prosecutor demands more prison sentence

Immediately after the announcement of the reasoned decision, the prosecutor’s office applied to the Court of Cassation to review the verdict and demanded a higher prison sentence against Nurcan Yalçın. The prosecutor’s office, which demanded a higher prison sentence, claimed that the prison sentence given to the journalist is against the principles for legal procedure. “She went to Sur district and recorded a video under the name of interviewing armed militants, in the video; she made speeches in a way that supported terrorists,” the prosecutor’s office wrote in the application to the Court of Cassation. Demanding the reversal of the verdict, the prosecutor’s office also demanded a higher prison sentence to be given to journalist Nurcan Yalçın.