‘Vest a sign of terrorist propaganda,’ court rules

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

An Istanbul court has announced its detailed ruling over the sentencing of two students to eight years for making terrorist propaganda, saying that the students were not sentenced for the banner they carried, but the vests they were wearing, which carried signs of a “terrorist organization.”

The court had sentenced two students Berna Yılmaz and Ferhat Tüzer to eight years in jail for making terrorist propaganda on June 7 after they staged a protest demanding free education.

The court has issued its justification for the ruling, claiming that both Berna Yılmaz and Ferhat Tüzer were wearing the same vests, which was “a sign of an illegal terrorist organization.” The signatures under the banners also allegedly belonged to sub-sections of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), the ruling continued.

Freedom of expression
Nevertheless, the court found the content of the carried banners as a part of freedom of expression.
“The demand for free education and the stand against imperialism are considered free to express, but the terrorist organization’s signature was punished in the case,” the justification read. Ferhat Tüzer is a mechanical engineering student at Trakya University and Berna Yılmaz is an anthropology student at Ankara University.