An Istanbul court sentenced the head of Turkey’s largest physicians’ union to nearly three years in prison on terrorism-related charges in a case rights defenders denounced as an effort to gag the government’s critics.
Judges in Istanbul found Şebnem Korur Fincancı, a medical doctor and prominent human rights activist, guilty of propagandising for a terrorist organisation when she called for an independent investigation into claims the Turkish military had used chemical weapons against Kurdish militants. Turkey has said it does not possess such ammunitions.
Fincancı, 63, was set to be released from jail on Wednesday during her appeal against the verdict. Her lawyer said she may be able to avoid further jail time even if the ruling stands after she was held in custody for nearly three months during the trial.
The Standing Committee of European Doctors, which represents the continent’s medical associations, said it was “appalled” by the ruling. “The verdict confirms our grave concern over the continued judicial harassment of doctors in Turkey,” its president Christiaan Keijzer said in a statement.
Fincancı is president of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), a non-governmental organisation that represents most of the country’s doctors. Prosecutors are seeking her and other executives’ removal from the helm of the TTB in a separate case.
Human Rights Watch has said the cases signalled the willingness of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to use the judiciary “to seize control of institutions that it wants to silence” ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections due in June.
Fincancı has been repeatedly detained in recent years over her activism. The latest charges were lodged after the forensic medicine expert told the pro-Kurdish outlet Medya Haber TV that video footage she had examined suggested toxic gases had been used against members of the armed Kurdistan Workers party, or PKK, in northern Iraq. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.
During the trial, Fincancı denied her remarks were propaganda, saying she had expressed her medical opinion. Erdoğan in October accused her of “speaking the language of a terrorist organisation” and the defence ministry said claims that Turkey had chemical weapons were “baseless”.
“Our armed forces do not use ammunition prohibited by international law and conventions. This type of ammunition is not in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces,” the ministry said in October.
Turkish security forces have been battling the autonomy-seeking PKK since 1984, with more than 40,000 people killed during the conflict. Fighting inside Turkey has largely ceased, but the military regularly conducts cross-border operations into northern Iraq, where the group is based, and Syria, where a PKK-affiliated militia operates.