Azadiya Welat editor in chief sentenced to 7,5 years in prison

The Turkish regime’s repressive measures against the Kurdish press continue.

Azadiya Welat had been the only Kurdish daily newspaper published in Turkey until it was shut down with a statutory decree (KHK) on 29 October 2016.

The editor in chief of the Kurdish daily, İsmail Çoban, has been sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison on terror charges. Based on the statements of three “witnesses”, two of them being secret, he was charged with being member of a terrorist organization.

The hearing in the case against the Kurdish journalist was held at the 7th Heavy Penal Court of Mersin on Wednesday.

Despite Çoban’s lawyer Mehmet Altuntaş highlighting the contradictions in the statements of the witnesses, the court sentenced the Kurdish journalist to 7 years and 6 months in prison for alleged “membership to a terrorist organization”.