According to court documents from her trial, Öztürk, a reporter for the weekly socialist magazine Kurtulus, was detained and imprisoned on March 31, 1996, charged with violating Article 168/2 of the Penal Code for alleged membership in the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). The prosecution accused her of gathering information for DHKP-C in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, and Konya, in central Turkey. She was also accused of attending unspecified illegal demonstrations in Istanbul and the funeral in Adana of two DHKP-C members killed during a robbery in Ankara.
According to Öztürk’s lawyer, the prosecution said that she had coordinated the DHKP-C’s propaganda activities. In her defense, Öztürk cited her work as a journalist and denied all charges. She was convicted and sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison. She is in Bayrampasa Prison.