Turkey to try 2 journalists for alleged membership in PKK

Shafaq News / the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said today, Turkish authorities should drop all charges against journalists Rawin Sterk and Selman Keleş, release Sterk from prison, and cease filing bogus terrorism charges against the press,

According to the Committee, Ankara "has fabricated terrorism charges against two Kurdish journalists who were working for Kurdish media.

On Wednesday September 2, the 34th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes, in Çağlayan, is scheduled to begin proceedings against Sterk, a reporter at the Iraqi-Kurdish news Rudaw, who has been charged with membership in a terrorist organization and held in prison since February, according to news reports.

Sterk was arrested last February, while covering the exodus of Syrian refugees to Turkey, but the Public Prosecutor charged him a week after his detention because of his posts on social media.

On Thursday September 3, the trial is scheduled to resume for Keleş, a former photographer with the now-shuttered Dijlah News Agency, who has faced charges of terrorist organization membership since his arrest in 2017, and has been free during his trial, reports said.

Both journalists are accused of being members of PKK, a militant group that Turkey classifies as a terrorist group.

If convicted, the journalists could each face up to 10 years in prison, according to Turkish law.

For its part, Reporters Without Borders said that 93 journalists are currently in Turkish prisons.