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Journalists held as Turkish state moves against peaceful protesters

THREE journalists were among those detained in Istanbul on Friday as police swooped on a peaceful vigil held by the mothers of Kurdish hunger strikers in Barikoy prison.

Mesopotamia News Agency reporter Irfan Tunccelik was prevented from taking footage of the protest and then detained.

Zeynep Kuray of the Birgun newspaper was also taken into custody, while Medyascope journalist Canan Coskun was arrested on Istiklal Avenue.

They were attempting to cover the vigil organised by the Peace Mothers to highlight the hunger strikes in protest at the jailed Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan being kept in isolation.

Police stopped the demonstration from marching to the prison, claiming that it had been banned, and took several Peace Mothers members into custody.

Last week, it was announced that Mr Ocalan had been able to see his lawyers for an hour. It was his first meeting with members of his legal team for nearly nine years.

Following a press conference in which he reiterated the need for a peaceful solution to the so-called Kurdish question, the hunger strikers vowed to continue their action until Mr Ocalan’s isolation is ended.

Turkey remains the world’s foremost jailer of journalists.

Mesopotamia News Agency journalist Seda Taskin will appear in court on Wednesday facing seven-and-a-half years in prison on trumped-up terrorism charges.

She was initially detained in Mus in December 2017 following an anonymous tip-off and her case has been marked by serious flaws.

Evidence used against Ms Taskin included the sharing of social media posts and recordings of interviews conducted in her work as a journalist.

Prosecutors even claimed that the name Seda, which she has used since her childhood, was a terrorist codeword.

Ms Taskin was sentenced to three years and four months for spreading “propaganda” and four years and two months for “aiding a terror group without being a member.”

She was released in January this year pending an appeal.

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