Children who chanted “Bijî Serok Apo” in Amed acquitted
The children who were on trial for flashing victory signs and chanting “Bijî Serok Apo” in Amed have been acquitted.
A.H. (17) and I.T. (17) went to the amusement park on June 15, 2018 to have some fun in the Eid holiday in Amed’s central Kayapınar district. The children flashed victory signs and chanted “Bijî Serok Apo” [Long Live Leader Öcalan] as they were playing in the bumper cars.
The police officers in the park wrote reports on the children and detained them. The children were taken to the Diyarbakır Police Headquarters Minors Department and were released the same day on orders of the prosecutor’s office to be handed over to their families.
FROM THE INDICTMENT
The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office completed an investigation on the children for “terrorist propaganda” in 10 days, and prepared an indictment for June 26.
The indictment argued that the children “praised and encouraged illegitimate means of the PKK and KCK that include force, violence and threats”. The children were accused of being PKK and KCK supporters and having committed the crime of terrorist propaganda via non-material support to the organization.
GROUNDS FOR ACQUITTAL
The Diyarbakır Minor’s Heavy Penal Court accepted the indictment and in the first hearing held on June 26, acquitted the children on the grounds that the legal requirements of the alleged crime had not been met. In the detailed ruling, the court referred to the judicial opinion issued by the Supreme Court in 2015 that states, “Freedom of speech should be applicable not only to ideas and information considered by the population to be harmless or unimportant or favorable, but also for aggressive, shocking, disturbing or polarizing ideas as a requirement of pluralism, tolerance and open mindedness which shape a democratic society.”
The detailed ruling also said: “(...)When the concrete incident is investigated, the slogans in question can be seen to lack a quality of praise for the organization’s violent, forceful and threatening methods, or legitimization or encouragement of the use of such methods. Thus, the requirements for the crime attributed to the minors have not been met, and considering the factors cited in the above Supreme Court ruling, the court rules to acquit the minors of the crime of terrorist propaganda.”
There are many people in prisons on similar allegations, but the judiciary is dysfunctional in Turkey and no court ruling can act as a precedent.
