CPJ believes that Özen may have been prosecuted and imprisoned because of a crackdown on Devrimci Çözüm, which he owned. He was taken into custody during a police raid on his home in Istanbul and charged with violating Articles 5 and 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (aid and propaganda for a terrorist organization) and Article 312/2 of the Penal Code (inciting racial hatred). He is serving a 12-year sentence in Gebze Prison in Istanbul.
The defense argued that Devrimci Çözüm was a legal publication, and that the authorities would have rejected Özen’s application to publish the magazine had he been affiliated with any outlawed organization. Özen’s lawyer said his client had committed no crime.
The Ministry of Justice responded to CPJ’s request for information saying: “As a result of exhaustive investigations, certain members of [Dev Sol] and some terrorists acting on its behalf were apprehended. From their testimony, it was discovered that Mr. Ibrahim Özen was a member of the organization and acted on its behalf. In the search of his hideout [sic], an unauthorized arm was found. Like CPJ reports, Mr. Özen, like Bektas Cansever and Kemal Topalak, who were members of the same organization, was arrested by the State Security Court for being a member of an outlawed organization. Ibrahim Özen was convicted under Penal Code Article 168/2 and is currently serving time at Gebze Prison.”
Court documents from Özen’s trial state that he was detained during a police raid on his home—the “hideout” referred to above. He was convicted of membership in Dev Sol and Dev Genc, another outlawed organization, in violation of Article 168 of the Penal Code. Based on witness testimony, the prosecution said that Özen traveled to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and sent other members there as well. He is also accused of providing written instructions to other alleged Dev Sol members and using the magazine’s office on behalf of the organizations. According to the court documents, he confessed to the charges against him in police custody but later recanted. His lawyers argued in court that he was tortured. They asserted that the prosecution had no concrete evidence to support its claims. Earlier AOP: Özen, a former owner of the magazine Devrimci Çözüm, was taken into custody during a police raid on the magazine’s headquarters in Istanbul. He was charged with being a member of an outlawed organization. He is being held in Gebze Prison in Istanbul.