A petition has been launched for priest Bileçen, who has been sentenced to prison: “We demand that the government drop all charges against the monk, who only acted according to his values and gave bread and water to those who asked for it.”
Taken into custody as part of a "terror investigation" in Mardin's Nusaybin district and briefly arrested in 2020, Mor Yakup Church's priest Aho (Sefer) Bileçen was sentenced to 2 years, 1 month in prison in early April in the trial where he was charged with "aiding the organization".
Syriac organizations and politicians in Europe have launched a petition for Bileçen, saying, "We demand freedom for Monk Aho, Sefer Bileçen."
As reported by Gazete Sabro, the petition launched on change.org in German, French and English reads as follows:
"Monk Aho Sefer Bileçen was arrested on 09.01.2020 for alleged terrorist support of the PKK in eastern Turkey, Tur Abdin.
"On 07.04.2021 he was sentenced in absentia to 2 years and 1 month imprisonment. His offence was to have handed 'bread and water' on request to two unknown persons in the hot summer of 2018. These persons have subsequently turned out to be members of the banned PKK.
"We demand that the Turkish government release and drop all charges against the monk, who only acted according to his values and gave bread and water to those who asked for it."
* Click here to read/sign the petition
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