Kaplan and Oyman, reporters for the pro-Kurdish daily Ülkede Gündem in Malatya, were arrested in a nationwide police roundup of journalists working with the publication. They are charged with violating Article 169 of the Penal Code (aiding an outlawed organization).
According to the indictment, the prosecution accused the two journalists of collecting political and military information in Elazig, Bingöl, and Tunceli “under the cover of news.” The prosecution accused the journalists of interviewing relatives of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members who had been killed, and accused Eylem of traveling to PKK military camps and taking photographs of guerrillas. Police state that they discovered film containing these photos in the newspaper office. According to the prosecution, “they brought to the newspaper bureau interviews that praised the members of the PKK in the name of news.” The prosecution’s evidence consisted of “nine cassettes of interviews conducted by the accused that were seized in the newspaper office, which were propagating on behalf of the PKK and were derogatory against the state.”
The trial of Kaplan and Oyman is underway in the Malatya State Security Court, and they are in Malatya Prison.