Bar head sentenced to six years for participation in rallies

A Turkish court has sentenced Tunceli Bar Association head U?ur Ye?iltepe to six years in jail on terrorism charges, making him the first chair of a Turkish bar association to be sentenced to prison since the 1980 military coup.

Ye?iltepe and six others were convicted of terrorist crimes stemming from their alleged membership in the outlawed Maoist Communist Party (MKP).

In their indictment, prosecutors alleged that Ye?iltepe and others engaged in terrorist activity during legal rallies in the eastern province of Tunceli, commonly known by its old name of Dersim.

One of the pieces of evidence against the bar head was a verbal exchange with police during a press statement regarding one of Ye?iltepe's clients, failed Dersim municipal candidate Murat Kur, who was sentenced to 56 years in jail for shouting slogans commemorating ?brahim Kaypakkaya, a Maoist leader who was tortured and killed by security forces in 1973.

"Mr. Officer, why are you filming [those attending the press statement]? People are like a power keg. You're preparing summaries of proceedings on flimsy evidence and accusing people - they're already on edge. Eight, 14 years have been given. Please step back a bit and don't film," Ye?iltepe told an officer in the correspondence that was cited as evidence.

Ye?iltepe was also alleged to have engaged in terrorist acts by working on a book about Armenak Bak?rc?yan, a Turkish-Armenian revolutionary who was killed while fighting for the outlawed Turkish Workers and Peasants' Liberation Army (T?KKO).

"I've been punished entirely for professional activities," Ye?iltepe said.

"If the law is stripped of its justice, human rights and freedoms, a ... police state will emerge that will arrest all of us one...