Nedim Türfent is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

from Turkey who worked as a correspondent for

Dicle News Agency Dicle Haber Ajansı, DIHA ( en, Dicle News Agency), is a "pro-Kurdish" news agency of Turkey. In March 2012 Reporters without Borders reported that 27 of its journalists were in prison. DIHA produces news reports on Turkish, Kurdish, and English ...

(DIHA) in the South East of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He was arrested on May 12, 2016, and charged with "membership in a terrorist organisation" under the

Anti-Terror Law of Turkey The Anti-Terror Law of Turkey (ATL), Anti-Terror Act of Turkey (ATA) or ''Terörle Mücadele Yasası'' (TMY) in Turkish, is a nation-wide law in Turkey that was written in 1991 to strongly criminalize acts of terrorism. Background The ATA was pa ...

. He remains in prison. Türfent is from Yüksekova in the far East of Turkey. He was jailed after the shuttering of Dicle News Agency in 2016, was detained without charge for the first 13 months of his imprisonment. Following this, he was charged with being a member of the banned Kurdish militia, the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK). Witnesses who gave evidence against Türfent later stated that they had been deposed under torture, and the prosecution also relied on anonymous testimony. Türfent claimed at his trial that he was being persecuted as a result of his reporting, in particular a story called "You will see the power of Turks", which criticised the Turkish police and military authorities. He was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison. On 10 October 2019, Türfent's sentence was upheld by Turkey's Court of Cassation. Türfent is also a poet, and his case has been taken up by organisations like PEN International and the Irish arm of The Freedom to Write Campaign. On the 1000th day of his arrest, International Press Institute (IPI), PEN International and Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) wrote a letter to Türfent, saying, "We write to you today to tell you that you are not alone. We are with you and united our voices to demand your release." He was released in November 2022.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Turfent, Nedim Turkish Kurdish people Kurdish journalists Turkish journalists Journalists imprisoned in Turkey People from Hakkâri Province Year of birth missing (living people) Living people