Families of Journalists Çelik and Keser: Their lives are at risk

2020-04-04 13:51:20


	İSTANBUL  - Families of Journalists Mehmet Ferhat Çelik and Aydın Keser who are not included to the new law of execution, demanded their release along with other political prisoners.

	Yeni Yaşam Newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Mehmet Ferhat Çelik and Managing Editor of the Office Aydın Keser were arrested because they published an article about a soldier who died in Libya with the accusation of  “revealing information and documents related to the intelligence activity”.

	 

	The families of Çelik and Keser, who are kept in single cells at the Closed Prison No. 9 in Silivri, are concerned about the coronavirus (Kovid-19) outbreak. Their families demanded that both journalists be released immediately. 

	 

	Aydın Keser's wife Öznur Keser stated that her husband was unlawfully arrested due to a news previously published in other media outlets.

	 

	Keser, who has not been able to meet with her husband due to the termination of the visitations due to the coronavirus outbreaks since his arrest, has not been able to call her husband because she could not send the necessary documents to the prison due to the outbreak.

	 

	Sharing her concerns about her husband's health due to the epidemic, Keser is also angry that the new execution arrangement brought to Parliament does not include her husband and those in a similar situation. Keser said: "How is it a terrorist crime to share and publish a story? Where is the freedom of press and freedom of expression?"

	 

	Keser said: "It is unacceptable that my husband is held under bad conditions in prison, especially in this period for publishing an article that was already published in other media outlets. How can the new regulation include sex offenders, drug dealers, murderers and not journalists who are in prison for publishing the facts?"

	 

	Mehmet Ferhat Çelik's father Ali Çelik also stated that his son is being held unlawfully. Çelik, stating that the Silivri prison is not taking necessarry precautions and that the prisons must be evacuated immediately, said: "If the epidemic reaches the prisons, there will be a massacre. Therefore, they must be released. There will be no spoilation of evidence because there is no crime. We have to raise our voices for this regulation to involve political prisoners."