Aysel Bölücek

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Bolucek, an Ankara correspondent for the now banned weekly socialist magazine Mucadele, was arrested at her home and charged with belonging to an outlawed organization under Article 168/2 of the Penal Code, partly on the basis of a handwritten document that allegedly linked her to the banned leftist group Devrimci Sol (also known as Dev Sol). She has been in prison since her arrest.

Court documents from her trial show that the state also cited the October 8, 1994, issue of Mucadele to support its argument that the magazine is a Devrimci Sol publication. The prosecutor claimed that the October 8 edition insulted security forces and state officials and praised Devrimci Sol guerrillas who had been killed in clashes with security forces.

Earlier in 1994, Bolucek had been acquitted of the same charges, so the defense argued that it was illegal for the defendant to be tried twice for the same crime. The defense accepted the prosecution’s claim that Bolucek had written the document but said that the police forced her to write it under torture while she was in custody. The defense also argued that a legal publication could not be used as evidence, and that the individuals who made incriminating statements about Bolucek to the police had done so under torture and had subsequently recanted. On December 23, 1994, Bolucek was convicted and sentenced to 12 years and six months in jail. At the end of 2002, she was being held in Kutahya Prison.