This week, the proceedings against Kurdish journalists Dicle Müftüoğlu and Abdurrahman Gök will continue in Amed. Both are accused of "terrorism" because of their journalistic activities, and if convicted, face long prison sentences. The Dicle Firat Journalists' Association (DFG) is calling for solidarity. "It is not our colleagues who are on trial, but the free media," said the Amed-based organization.

Dicle Müftüoğlu and Abdurrahman Gök, like many of their colleagues from the Mezopotamya News Agency (MA) and its banned predecessors, are the constant focus of repression. Both journalists have been persecuted by the Turkish judiciary for years and have already served time in prison. The accusation was always the same: membership in an illegal organization. This is the case in the last trial as well.

The indictment against Gök, MA's Middle East correspondent, was drawn up by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on the instructions of the Turkish Interior Ministry. The accusation against the 44-year-old is essentially based on the claims of Ümit Akbıyık - a former HDP activist who, in order to benefit from the Turkish repentance law, acts as a key witness for the so-called anti-terror police and has already appeared in various trials against opposition members - who claims that Gök is working "on the instructions of the PKK/KCK press committee".

Other evidence against Gök includes reviews of books, such as "Devran" and "Leylan" by the imprisoned former HDP chair Selahattin Demirtaş, articles about victims of Turkey's anti-terror laws and a video documentary about the fight against ISIS in Kobanê. The trial has been pending since 2023, and Gök spent around six months in custody last year. The public prosecutor is demanding up to 20 years in prison against him. The trial will resume tomorrow, Tuesday.

Dicle Müftüoğlu, who works as an editor for MA and is also the co-chair of DFG, could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The 40-year-old was arrested in Ankara on 3 May, International Press Freedom Day, last year on suspicion of founding and leading a terrorist organization and alleged membership after being held in police custody for several days at the instigation of the Diyarbakır public prosecutor's office. She was then held in pre-trial detention for almost ten months in Sincan women's prison near Ankara. Like in the case of her colleague Gök, the prosecution bases its allegations against Müftüoğlu mainly on statements from prosecution witnesses who were also used in other trials against Kurdish journalists and in the political show trial against the HDP known as Kobanê trial.

The trial against Müftüoğlu resumes on Thursday 24 October 24.

DFG: Crusade against Kurdish press

The DFG said that the accusations against Dicle Müftüoğlu and Abdurrahman Gök are related to their work for the free Kurdish press. Although all independent media workers in Turkey are being targeted by a politicized judiciary in order to silence them, "the sword of Damocles, i.e. prison, hangs even lower over journalists from Kurdish media who pursue the truth," said the journalist association. A crusade is being waged against free media journalists. "We will not allow the free media to be suppressed and call for solidarity with our colleagues."