Sel, the Malatya bureau chief for the pro-Kurdish daily Ülkede Gündem since December 1996, was arrested in a nationwide police roundup of journalists working for the publication. He was charged with aiding an outlawed organization under Article 169 of the Penal Code.
According to official court documents from his indictment, Sel was accused of using two reporters from the paper to collect political and military information “in the name of news” in the towns of in Elazig, Tunceli, and Bingöl and passing it on to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The state’s accusation read: “In the so-called newspaper, he used Eylem Kaplan and Ayse Onan to collect political and military information” such as “the starting hours of the soldiers and their routes; the lists of the material the soldiers were going to pass from the checkpoints; the pressure put on the people of the region; information about village evacuations. This information, which was against the state and in accordance with PKK’s views was sent to the so-called newspaper Ülkede Gündem] in the name of news.”
Prosecutors state that during a search of Sel’s office and home they found “documents that were pro-PKK.” His trial in the Malatya State Security Court is currently underway. He is in Malatya Prison.