Upon an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Turkey has admitted that Zehra Doğan’s presumption of innocence was violated. Journalist-painter Doğan will now be paid 1,350 Euro in damages.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has given its ruling as to the application of journalist and painter #Zehra Doğan# , who was arrested in Turkey on charge of propagandizing for a terrorist organization on the grounds of the news she had reported and the photos she had posted on social media during the curfews in Mardin's Nusaybin in 2015-2016.
Upon her application to the ECtHR, Turkey will pay damages to Zehra Doğan. It has been reportedly admitted by the state that the people convicted of propagandizing for a terrorist organization cannot be designated as terror criminals or members of terrorist organizations, which poses a common problem is prisons, and that the practices of the prison administration and judgeship of execution to the contrary mean that the related people's presumption of innocence is violated.
As reported by Uğur Şahin from daily BirGün, Zehra Doğan, a painter and editor for the Jin News Agency (JİNHA), closed by a Statutory Decree, was sent to jail on October 24, 2018. On February 24, 2019, she was released from the Tarsus Closed Women's Prison. But some opportunities and rights such as a transfer to an open prison were denied to her in prison.
She was told to 'leave the organization'
As the reason for preventing Zehra Doğan from using these opportunities and rights, it was said that Doğan was obliged to submit a petition saying that she ceased to be a member of the organization and that she wanted to leave the organization ward, which means that she was requested to leave an organization that she was not a member of so that she could exercise these rights. Doğan's lawyer Olguner Olgun indicated that it reflected a common problem in prisons, said that it was in violation of the presumption of innocence and applied to the ECtHR.
The ECtHR referred the application to the Republic of Turkey. The government, issuing a 'unilateral declaration' to resolve the problems arising from the case, requested that 'the application be dropped'. The related declaration also acknowledged that the presumption of innocence was violated and undertook to pay 1,350 Euro in damages to Doğan.
After the government's declaration was sent to the applicant by the court, Doğan drew attention to the lowness of the damages.
Moreover, she underlined that it will be more effective for the resolution of systematic violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in Turkey if the court gives a ruling on the matter.
As for the ECtHR, the Court has noted that the government has admitted the violation, concluded that there is no need for further examination of the application and ruled that the amount of damages pledged to be paid by the government was not insufficient. Accordingly, the ECtHR has unanimously ruled that the application of Zehra Doğan shall be dropped.[1]