- The President of the Turkish Medical Association, Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci, is being tried in court on charges that she disseminated “terrorist propaganda”
- Fincanci, 63, is further accused of engaging in propaganda on behalf of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK
- She was arrested in October and is the latest activist to be prosecuted under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws
ISTANBUL, Turkey: The President of the Turkish Medical Association, Dr. Sebnem Korur Fincanci, is being tried in court on charges that she disseminated “terrorist propaganda.”
Fincanci, 63, is further accused of engaging in propaganda on behalf of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. She was arrested in October and is the latest activist to be prosecuted under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws. She faces up to seven and a half years in prison, if found guilty.
The charges are based on a recording of an interview with a pro-Kurdish media outlet in which Fincanci is heard saying that she had reviewed a video purporting to show the use of Turkish chemical weapons in Iraq.
“What I expressed during the broadcast was a preliminary diagnostic. It was not a definitive conclusion, but a request for an effective, independent investigation,” Dokuz 8 Haber website quoted her as telling the court. “My words cannot be considered a crime within the scope of science or freedom of expression.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Fincanci of slandering Turkey’s armed forces and of insulting her country. He vowed to take actions to clear the Turkish Medical Association and other professional organizations of “supporters of the terrorist organization.”
Hundreds of people have gathered outside the courthouse in a show of support for Fincanci, who has spent much of her career documenting torture and ill-treatment, and is a leading human rights activist in Turkey.
