Speaking to ANF about the 11 years and three months prison sentence given to Necati Abay, spokesperson of the Platform for Solidarity with Journalists in Prison, lawyer Gülizar Tuncer said the sentence was unacceptable. “Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court has given a very much unlawful decision by ignoring the whole unlawfulness witnessed from the beginning till the end of the investigation process”, she said.

Tuncer pointed out that the court grounded the prison sentence on a fabricated evidence and insisted on a prison sentence at an upper limit on charges of membership to an illegal organization. She remarked that the fabricated evidence against Abay had been provided by Aligül Alkaya who was however forced to do so after suffering from unlawful ways of interrogation but later withdrew his allegations, according to which Abay was responsible for armed cell houses.

Noting that the court considered this fabricated evidence as the indication of a proven allegation, Tuncer added that the court has found Abay guilty of further crimes newly added to the indictment after his previous trial.