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Tag: Sevil Sevimli

  • ‘Radical’ French student on bail in Turkey

    ‘Radical’ French student on bail in Turkey

    ‘Radical’ French student on bail in Turkey

    Published: 19 Feb 2013 08:44 GMT+01:00 | Print version

    Updated: 19 Feb 2013 08:44 GMT+01:00

    Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP
    Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP

    A French-Turkish student sentenced last week to more than five years in prison for terrorist propaganda on Monday paid bail of 10,000 Turkish lira (€4,250) enabling her to return to France pending an appeal, her lawyer said.

    Turkey calls on France to extradite arrested Kurds (15 Feb 13)

    Kurds arrested in French anti-terror raids (12 Feb 13)

    The court in Bursa, northwestern Turkey,  agreed the bail terms immediately after convicting the 21-year-old Sevil Sevimli on Friday.

    “I paid her bail to the court today,” her lawyer Inayet Aksu said. “She now has the right to leave Turkish territory at any time,” he said, adding that the date for her return to France has not yet been set.

    Sevimli’s friends and supporters hailed the news, indicating that she may return to the central-eastern French city of Lyon, where she studied before arriving in Turkey in early 2012, as early as Wednesday.

    Born in France to Turkish Kurd parents, Sevimli was completing a final year of studies in Turkey with Erasmus, an inter-European university exchange programme, at the time of her arrest. She had joined a May Day parade in Istanbul and went on trial in September on charges punishable by up to 32 years in prison.

    Although Sevimli was initially accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, the court sentenced her to five years and two months in prison for disseminating propaganda on behalf of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. She has denied the accusations.

    Since the 1970s, the DHKP-C has been behind numerous attacks against the Turkish state that have killed dozens. This month it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara that killed a Turkish security guard.

    AFP

    via ‘Radical’ French student on bail in Turkey – The Local.

  • France-Turkey student sentenced on terrorism charges

    France-Turkey student sentenced on terrorism charges

    ANKARA: A court in Turkey on Friday sentenced a French-Turkish student to more than five years in prison for “terrorist propaganda” but allowed her to return to France pending an appeal, her lawyer said.

    The lawyer, Inayet Aksu, said the court in the northwestern city of Bursa had sentenced Sevil Sevimli, 21, to five years and two months in prison but freed her until her planned appeal and did not require that she stay in Turkey. She will however have to pay 10,000 Turkish lira (around 4,200 euros, $5,600) in bail before she leaves, Aksu said.

    The exchange student was arrested after joining a May Day parade in Istanbul and went on trial in September on charges that risked up to 32 years in prison. Aksu said that while she was initially accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, she was only found guilty of disseminating propaganda on behalf of an outlawed group.

    Sevimli, who was detained for three months before her release under court supervision in August, is accused of links to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). The far-left extremist group is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US embassy in Ankara this month that killed a Turkish security guard.

    Since 1976, the DHKP-C has been behind numerous attacks against the Turkish state that have killed dozens. Sevimli has denied the accusations, calling them “ridiculous”. In November, Aksu told the judge, “Her only fault is to come to Turkey as a student with leftist ideas”.

    Born in France to Turkish Kurd parents, Sevimli was completing a final year of studies in Turkey under Erasmus, the inter-European university exchange scheme, at the time of her arrest. Her friends and supporters greeted the news of her imminent return to France, expected Wednesday, with joy.

    “It’s first off a huge relief to know that Sevil can leave Turkish territory,” said the head of her school in France, Jean-Luc Mayaud of Lyon-2 University.

    via France-Turkey student sentenced on terrorism charges – thenews.com.pk.