Turkey: Verdict expected in trial of writer and Kurdish PEN member Meral Şimşek

Meral Şimşek (CC Meral Şimşek)

Update - 7 October 2021

On 7 October, the Malatya 2nd High Criminal Court found Meral Şimşek guilty of 'making terrorist propaganda' and sentenced her to one year and three months in prison. The court acquitted her of the charge of ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’. She said she would appeal against her conviction.

On 16 November, Meral Şimşek will appear in court again in a separate case, on the charge of ‘entering a restricted military area’, for which she faces up to five years in prison.

PEN International calls on the Turkish authorities to overturn Meral Şimşek’s conviction and drop all charges against her.

The Turkish authorities must acquit Meral Şimşek of all charges, PEN International said today, as the writer, poet and Kurdish PEN member risks a lengthy prison sentence for her writings. A verdict in the case is expected on 7 October 2021.

Meral Şimşek faces up to 15 years in prison on the charge of ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ and up to seven-and-a-half years on the charge of ‘making terrorist propaganda’. The indictment notably mentions Şimşek’s short story Arzela, featured in the anthology Kurdistan + 100, in which twelve contemporary Kurdish writers imagine a country they could call their own by the year 2046. At the 8th hearing on 5 October 2021, the prosecutor at the Malatya 2nd High Criminal Court requested her conviction on both charges.

‘The PEN Community stands by Meral Şimşek and will closely follow the hearing on Thursday. The prosecution is seeking her conviction on baseless accusations. The truth is that Şimşek is being targeted simply for peacefully expressing her views. This harassment has to stop immediately. She must be acquitted of all charges,’ said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

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Background

Meral Şimşek is the prize-winning author of three poetry books – Mülteci Düşler (Refugee Dreams), Ateşe Bulut Yağdıran (Clouds on Fire) and İncir Karası (Black Fig). Her novel Nar Lekesi (Pomegranate Stain), published in 2017, tells the story of Şimşek’s family and sheds light on the plight of Kurdish people in Turkey in the 1990s. She became a member of Kurdish PEN in June 2020. She also works as an editor and frequently publishes poems and articles.

On 9 December 2020, anti-terror police detained Şimşek in Malatya province, Eastern Turkey. She was released the following day pending trial and placed under a travel ban. In January 2021, the Malatya 2nd High Criminal Court formally charged her with ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ under Article 314/2 of Turkey’s Penal Code and ‘making terrorist propaganda’ under Article 7/2 of Anti-Terror Law No. 3713.

Şimşek fled to Greece on 29 June 2021. Greek police reportedly stopped, strip-searched her, and confiscated her identity documents and phone following her arrival. She reports having been forced into a car before being handed over to masked individuals who made her cross the border back into Turkey. On 30 June, she was detained by Turkish police at the Ipsala border crossing and sent to Edirne Prison, where she spent seven days in poor detention conditions. On 6 July, she appeared in court via the video-conferencing system SEGBİS. She was released and asked to report to the police station three times a week. A separate case on the charge of ‘entering a restricted military area’ in Ipsala was filed against her, for which she faces up to five years in prison. The hearing will take place on 16 November 2021.

The situation for freedom of expression in Turkey remains dire. Kurdish culture and language are harshly repressed. Most pro-Kurdish and Kurdish language media outlets have been closed down, and dozens of journalists of Kurdish or pro-Kurdish outlets are in prison on trumped-up terrorism charges, including news editor, reporter and poet Nedim Türfent. Writer and former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş remains behind bars, despite the European Court of Human Rights twice ruling for his immediate release. Kurdish PEN member and writer Gulgeş Deryaspî was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ in December 2020. A verdict on her appeal is pending. PEN International calls for her conviction to be overturned.

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For further details contact Aurélia Dondo at PEN International, Koops Mill, 162-164 Abbey Street, London, SE1 2AN, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7405 0338 Fax +44 (0) 20 7405 0339 e-mail: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org