Kurdish singer Rojda Senses was charged with one year and eight months imprisonment

In a court in Diyarbakir on 25 March 2010, the Kurdish singer Rojda Senses was charged with one year and eight months imprisonment for ‘conducting propaganda for a terrorist organisation’ in two separate concerts.

Rojda Senses testified in court in Istanbul on 11 February 2010. She has previously been invited to participate in a breakfast meeting by Prime Minister Erdogan within the framework of the democratic expansion. Even so, she now received her sentence from Diyarbakir’s Special Authority High Criminal Court of one year each for having performed the song ‘Heval Kamuran’ in a concert at the 9th Diyarbakir Culture and Art Festival, as well as in another concert.
The sentence was later decreased to ten months served in prison for each count, totaling one year and eight months.

47 persons on trial in 2009
In 2009, 47 people were on trial in Turkey under the charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation” or “exposing the identities of public officials fighting terrorism.” 23 people were convicted to a total of 58 years in prison, according to Antenna-tr.org.

Arrested in February
Rojda Senses was first arrested in her home in the Gaziosmanpasa Karayollari quarter of Istanbul on the evening of 9 February 2010. She was held at the Istanbul Police Directorate and later on transported to the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court. There she gave her statement in the presence of her lawyer Hüseyin Çalisçi.

In an announcement Rojda made after she had given her statement in court, she said: “We appear to be potentially guilty unless some laws are going to be amended. I will give my statements at all the trials,” (quote by journalist Uygar Gültekin who reported about Rodja’s case to Bianet).

http://freemuse.synkron.com/sw37253.asp

Previous report:

http://supportkurds.org/news/killed-for-singing-a-kurdish-folk-song-in-turkey