Can, a reporter for the leftist weekly Kurtulus, was arrested and imprisoned after she attended a political dissident’s funeral in her capacity as a journalist. Can was tried along with 19 other alleged members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)Ñformerly known as Devrimci Sol or Dev SolÑunder Article 168/2 of the penal code. Trial documents obtained in December 1997 state that police arrested Can at her home on April 9, 1995, after two people told authorities that she was a member of DHKP-C. The two informants later recanted.
Can’s lawyer told CPJ that the charge was based on her attendance at the funeral of a DHKP-C member. Her lawyer argued, however, that she had attended the funeral in her capacity as a journalist. The lawyer also said that Can had testified in court to being beaten while in custody.
Can was convicted on December 21, 1997, and sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison. At year’s end, she was being held in Istanbul’s Umraniye prison.