Journalist gets jail term for recording police killing of Kurdish man
A Turkish court has sentenced journalist Abdurrahman Gök, who recorded the killing of a young Kurdish man by a police officer, to 18 months in prison.
Duvar English
A court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır has sentenced journalist Abdurrahman Gök to 18 months and 22 days in prison on the charge of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization.”
Gök recorded the moment police officer Yakup Şenocak killed 23-year-old university student Kemal Kurkut on March 21, 2017 in the Bağlar district of Diyarbakır during a Newroz celebration.
Police at the time said he might have been a suicide bomber - a statement that drew ire since Kurkut was not wearing a shirt, looking unarmed, and did not aim a knife he carried at anyone.
Gök was facing up to 20 years in jail for “being a member of a terroist organization” and "making propaganda for a terrorist organization."
Police at the time attempted to delete the pictures from Gök's camera to prevent the killing from being seen by the public. The pictures were also crucial in refuting authorities' claims that Kurkut was a suicide bomber.
A Diyarbakır court acquitted Gök on the charge of “being a member of a terrorist organization” and sentenced him to 18 months and 22 days in prison on the charge of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization,” Mezopotamya News Agency reported on June 30.
The court ruled that there was no room for the postponement of the sentence.
Another Turkish court of appeals previously ruled that no crime could be attributed to Şenocak and that the murder was committed within a "legal framework.”