A government crackdown again supporters of the “no” side in the recent referendum extends to Sendika.Org, with Editor Ali Ergin Demirhan being detained in an early-morning raid for “not legitimizing the ‘yes’ vote.” Police seized Demirhan’s hard disk and cell phone in the raid
A government crackdown again supporters of the “no” side in the recent referendum extends to Sendika.Org, with Editor Ali Ergin Demirhan being detained in an early-morning raid for “not legitimizing the ‘yes’ vote.” Police seized Demirhan’s hard disk and cell phone in the raid
“YES” WILL NOT BE LEGITIMIZED, SENDİKA.ORG WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
Raids by the Turkish government against those who have questioned the tainted results of the 16 April constitutional referendum on extending nearly unlimited powers to the Palace of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continued early on 20 April with a raid on Sendika.Org and the detention of one of the site’s editors, Ali Ergin Demirhan.
Police raided Sendika.Org’s offices at 5.45 on 20 April, detaining Demirhan and confiscating his hard disk and personal cell phone. They also conducted a search of the premises.
During the raid, Demirhan managed to tweet that he was being detained on the crime of “depicting the yes side as illegitimate.”
“Only the crime of ‘depicting yes as illegitimate’ would befit illegitimacy, but millions of people know the [true] result,” Demirhan said.
The editor was formally detained on allegations that he was “organizing protests on social media while attempting to depict the results of the referendum as illegitimate” and due to “inciting people to enmity and insulting a public servant on the basis of his position.”
Demirhan was taken to the Esenler Police Station after being detained.
Our editor Ali Ergin Demirhan was detained by the reason of “showing the Yes as illegitimate”. https://t.co/3SNdCbmB8x
— Sendika News (@sendika_news) 20 Nisan 2017
Some 38 people were taken into custody on 19 April for questioning the legitimacy of the “yes” vote in the referendum. According to official sources, the “yes” side won 51.4 percent of the vote, although there have been widespread allegations of intimidation, ballot stuffing and other irregularities that were compounded by officials’ decisions to accept ballots that did not bear legal seals as valid.
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