Communicated on 16 September 2016
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 37091/11
İrfan DÜNDAR and Fırat AYDINKAYA
against Turkey
lodged on 17 March 2011
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicants, Mr İrfan Dündar and Mr Fırat Aydınkaya, are Turkish nationals who were born in 1972 and 1979 respectively and live in Istanbul. They are represented before the Court by Mr Ö. Kılıç, a lawyer practising in Istanbul.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
At the material time, the applicants were the legal representatives of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK, an illegal armed organisation.
On 30 April 2004 the public prosecutor at the now defunct Istanbul State Security Court filed a bill of indictment, charging the applicants and another suspect with disseminating propaganda in favour of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL[1] under section 7(2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Law no. 3713) on account of a number of articles published in the 29 April 2004 issue of the newspaper Özgür Gündem. The impugned articles, headlined “Lawyers conveyed Abdullah Öcalan’s opinions concerning developments within the KONGRA-GEL (PKK)” and “The pain of change”, included statements made by the applicants, allegedly following meetings with Öcalan in prison. The applicants were deemed to be acting on Öcalan’s instructions and conveying messages from him about the PKK’s strategy. Subsequently, criminal proceedings were launched against the applicants before the Istanbul Assize Court.
On 7 May 2004 the Istanbul public prosecutor filed a second bill of indictment against the applicants in connection with an article published in the 30 April 2004 issue of the same newspaper in which the applicants made statements such as “Abdullah Öcalan is an opportunity for Turkey” and “Abdullah Öcalan’s opinions are important for an enduring peace”.
On 24 August 2004 the Istanbul Assize Court decided to join the two sets of criminal proceedings against the applicants owing to the factual and legal links between them.
During the proceedings the applicants maintained that they had made statements that had provided information to the press as the case against Abdullah Öcalan attracted media interest, however, they had been misquoted to a certain extent. They stressed that they had not acted with the intention of disseminating propaganda in favour of an illegal organisation.
On 18 February 2010 the Istanbul Assize Court convicted the applicants of disseminating propaganda in favour of the PKK/KONGRA-GEL under section 7(2) of Law no. 3713. It sentenced each of them to ten months’ imprisonment, but decided to suspend pronouncement of the judgment on condition that they did not commit another wilful offence for a period of five years, in accordance with Article 231 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
On 20 September 2010 the applicants’ objection to the judgment was dismissed by the domestic court.
COMPLAINT
The applicants complain under Article 10 of the Convention that their conviction under section 7(2) of Law no. 3713 constituted a breach of their right to freedom of expression.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Has there been a violation of the applicants’ right to freedom of expression within the meaning of Article 10 of the Convention?
[1]. Kurdistan Workers’ Party/People’s Congress of Kurdistan.
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