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Imprisoned
April 10
Ali Tekin, Selam, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Talip Ozdemir, Selam, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Tekin, managing editor of the Turkish Islamic weekly Selam, and Ozdemir, an Ankara representative for the weekly, were given the maximum possible sentence of three years in prison for attempting to enter Chechnya illegally from Azerbaijan via Dagestan, in violation of Article 83 of the Russian Penal Code. They had been detained since Nov. 2, 1995, when Russian border guards arrested them at the Chechen border with Dagestan and accused them of not holding the proper visas. After appeals from their lawyer and CPJ, an appeals court on July 5, 1996, overturned the sentence, acquitted the journalists of charges of 'border and custom violation' because they were considered to be 'journalists on duty,' and released them.
For more information contact europeweb@cpj.org