Rosa Women’s Association member sentenced to 6 years and 3 months

Rojda Barış, a member of the Rosa Women's Association, has been sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison.

The hearing of the case against Rojda Barış, a member of the Rosa Women's Association, who was detained on 26 June and imprisoned on 29 June within the scope of the investigation initiated by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) on 9 October 2018 was held in Diyarbakır 9th High Criminal Court. Rojda Barış and her lawyers Nurcan Budak, Gözde Engin and Muhammet Bahri Baltacı attended the second hearing of the female activist who had been released in the first hearing.

The hearing started with the opinion of the prosecutor. The prosecution asked for a prison sentence up to 10 years for "membership in a terrorist organization". In addition, the prosecution demanded the acquittal of Rojda Barış on the charge of "terrorist propaganda".

Rojda Barış's lawyers demanded acquittal, saying; "The existence of the client's name without her consent should not be considered a crime regarding the DTK membership. We demand that she be acquitted. She faces prison sentence for the crime of being a member of a terrorist organization in connection with her Twitter account. These posts should not be evaluated in the scope of organization membership. There are wiretapping. It is alleged that our client participated in an action that officials encountered on Google despite the fact that our client was elsewhere at that time.”

Rojda Barış demanded her acquittal, saying that she is a child rights activist, participated in such events and has nothing to do with the accusations.

After a short break, the court board gave a verdict of acquittal of Rojda Barış on the charge of “making successive propaganda for a terrorist organization”, gave her 5 years in prison on the charge of “membership of a terrorist organization”, which was increased by half on the grounds that “the offense is within the scope of terror crimes”.

The court board ruled 6 years and 3 months imprisonment for Barış with a reduction of 1/6, due to the "possible effects on the future" of the activist.