Yet another Kurdish journalist faces ‘terror investigation’

The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Yüksekova district of Hakkari has opened an investigation against Kurdish journalist Mazlum Engindeniz. According to Sercan Korkmaz, his defence lawyer, the case is based on accusations of propaganda for a terrorist organisation. Engindeniz is a correspondent for the Mezopotamya agency (MA). There is hardly a member of the staff who has not had to face the same accusations.

The specific accusation in Engindeniz’s case: the dissemination of news articles from his agency on the net, which would be punishable under criminal law. As the journalist is currently in Istanbul, he went to the district police station in Şişli on Monday accompanied by his lawyer. Engindeniz had previously been summoned by the Yüksekova public prosecutor’s office by telephone.

During police interrogation, his client was confronted with several articles by MA in connection with Abdullah Öcalan, said lawyer Sercan Korkmaz. Among other things, this involved a social media post of a mural with the portrait of the Kurdish leader, who has been held as a political hostage in the island prison of Imrali since he was abducted from Kenya to Turkey in 1999 in violation of international law. Another article, said to have been “unlawfully” circulated on Twitter by Engindeniz, dealt with the Imrali isolation system. The Kurdish leader is subject to total isolation in detention. The last contact with him was a telephone conversation with his brother in March last year, which was cut off after a few minutes. Öcalan last had contact with his legal counsel from the Asrin law office in August 2019.

Whether charges will be brought against Mazlum Engindeniz or whether the investigation will be dropped will be decided by the public prosecutor’s office only after the transcript of his police interrogation has been submitted. The decision is expected in the coming weeks.