Professor Şebnem Korur FINCANCI

Prominent academic, forensic scientist, and leading human rights defender, Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı remained on trial throughout 2024 in relation to restrained comments made in 2022 during a live interview regarding the possible use of chemical weapons by Türkiye’s armed forces against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Arrested on 26 October 2022 on charges of ‘disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organisation’ under Article 7/2 of Anti-Terror Law No. 3713, Fincancı was sentenced to two years, eight months, and 15 days in prison on 11 January 2023. She was freed pending appeal. The case was ongoing as of 31 December 2024 (see Case Lists 2023/2024 and 2022).  

In November 2023, a court in Ankara ordered the dismissal of the elected executive board of the Turkish Medical Association (Türk Tabipler Birliği – TTB), chaired by Fincancı – leading to a national and international outcry. In October 2024, a court in Ankara ordered Fincancı to pay TL50,000 (approximately USD1,400) in damages to Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defence. The lawsuit claimed that Fincancı’s comments on the alleged use of chemical weapons had damaged the Ministry’s reputation. 

In a separate trial that began on 14 October 2024, Fincancı stood accused of publicly insulting the Turkish nation, the Turkish Republic, the institutions and organs of the state (Article 301 of Türkiye’s Penal Code), in relation to comments she made during an interview in March 2022 on instances of torture and other ill-treatment.  

Former Chair of the Turkish Medical Association and board member of the Human Rights Foundation of Türkiye (HRFT), Şebnem Korur Fincancı has been judicially harassed for years, including in the Özgür Gündem case in which she and co-defendants Erol Önderoğlu and Ahmet Aziz Nesin are undergoing a retrial for acting as guest editors of the Kurdish daily during a country-wide solidarity campaign in 2016. This is despite the court ruling to acquit all three on 17 July 2019. Fincancı was also one of the ‘Academics for Peace’ – a group of 2,212 academics who were signatories of a petition calling for a restart to peace negotiations in the south-east of Türkiye. Fincancı was tried for her participation and acquitted of all charges. 

Update: Fincancı was acquitted at a trial hearing on 20 February 2025 in relation to the defamation case concerning her March 2022 comments about torture.