Turkish human rights defender and forensic doctor Şebnem Korur Fincancı was acquitted on Thursday of charges of “publicly insulting the Turkish state” after alleging on social media that a detainee showed signs of torture, Turkish media reported.
The charges came after Fincancı suggested on a YouTube channel that Orhan İnandı, a detainee who had been abducted by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) from Kyrgyzstan and forcibly brought to Turkey, showed signs of torture.
The Istanbul 69th Criminal Court of First Instance found that Fincancı’s statements did not constitute a crime and ruled for her acquittal.
Observers from Amnesty International, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) attended the session.
Following the ruling, Ece Milli of Amnesty International Turkey stated that the acquittal clearly proved the accusations against Fincancı were baseless and that the trial was yet another attempt to silence human rights activists in Turkey.
Other rights organizations also welcomed the decision on social media.
İnandı, the founder and director of the Sapat school network operating in Kyrgyzstan, went missing at the end of May 2021 in Bishkek and was found in detention at the Ankara Police Department in early July. He was abducted due to his links to the Gülen movement by MİT, which has been involved in the illegal rendition of people to Turkey from countries around the world.
Photos of İnandı in police custody in handcuffs with Turkish flags prompted allegations of torture at the time due to İnandı’s visible weight loss and swollen right hand.
The Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, is labelled as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government and accused of masterminding a failed coup in Turkey in July 2016. Both Gülen and his followers strongly deny any involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activity.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had acknowledged in a statement in July 2021 that İnandı was actually abducted by MİT, lauding the Turkish spies’ efforts in the rendition.
According to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Fincancı’s remarks in a YouTube interview, where Fincancı suggested that İnandı might have been subjected to torture, including “suspension torture,” based on photos circulating in the media that showed İnandı with what appeared to be a broken arm, were intended to create the perception of torture, thereby insulting the state.
