Court jails six for newspaper attack
SIX men were jailed by a court on Wednesday for attacking the Lefkoşa office of Afrika newspaper last month.
They received sentences ranging from two to six months after pleading guilty to a total of seven charges, including rioting, illegal gathering, deliberate damage to property and carrying “threatening instruments”.
The culprits had targeted the newspaper during a demo on January 22, a day after it had run a front page headline criticising Turkey’s military campaign in northern Syria and describing both it and the 1974 military intervention in Cyprus as an “occupation”.
The headline had infuriated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had called on people in North Cyprus to “give the necessary response”, during a speech in the Turkish city of Bursa on January 21.
During violent scenes, protesters threw rocks and other missiles at the newspaper’s windows and tore down its sign. They then moved on to Parliament, where MPs were being sworn in, with some scaling the roof.
Mehmet İpek, 53, a married father of four, and Ahmet Türkmen, 46, married with two children, were both sentenced to six months by Judge Tacan Reynar.
Abdülhadi Doğan, a 22year-old furniture maker who was in the TRNC as a “tourist” at the time, was handed a fourmonth sentence.
Büyükkonuk Municipality employee Bayram Ak, 35, a married father of two, was jailed for three months, as was Ümit Taş, 40, also married with two children.
Oktay Güney, 32, another married man with two children, was jailed for two months.
There was tight security as the men were escorted to and from the court building, with one of them shouting “there is no justice” following sentencing. Handing down the sentences, Judge Reynar said about 1,000 people had taken part in the demonstration, including the six offenders.
He said they and nine others still wanted in connection with the incidents, but not yet identified by police, had “escalated” the events, despite being warned by police.
Türkmen, Doğan and Ak had climbed on to the balcony of the newspaper and vandalised the building, the court was told.
Judge Reynar said claims by the defence that the offenders had been “provoked” by someone making inappropriate gestures from within the newspaper’s office had not been substantiated.
While the right to hold demonstrations was part of the “democratic right to freedom of expression”, this right could only be exercised “without weapons and attacks”, he added, saying the events of January 22 had “deeply wounded and terrified society”.
Defence lawyer Enver Öztürk said his clients would decide whether or not to appeal against the sentences “once they had examined the written verdict”.
The Rebirth Party (YDP), which supported the men during their trial, immediately denounced the sentences as “double standards”, claiming those who had taken part in “more violent demonstrations in the past” had received “more lenient sentences”.
A YDP statement said this had “shaken” the YDP’s “confidence” in TRNC justice, and the sentencing had “sent out a message to people with dual citizenship here and in Turkey”.