Communicated on 18 January 2017

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 5642/13 Maşallah YAMAÇ against Turkey lodged on 11 December 2012

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicant, Mr Maşallah Yamaç , is a Turkish national who was born in 1968 and lives in Mu ş . He is represented before the Court by Mr S. Kaya, a lawyer practising in Ankara.

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.

At the time of the events giving rise to the present application, the applicant was the head of the provincial branch of the Democratic Society Party ( Demokratik Toplum Partisi ) (DTP) in Mu ÅŸ .

On 1 July 2008 the applicant attended the funeral of a recently deceased member of the PKK, an illegal armed organisation, in the village of Ok ç uhan in the district of Malazgirt in Mu ş . During the funeral the applicant made a statement which was broadcast on ROJ TV [1] . The applicant ’ s statement reads as follows:

“Being Kurdish is not the choice of Kurdish people. Kurdish people demand to live like the other peoples of the world by having their own identity. But for now, they are facing difficulties and persecution and are being insulted. This friend of ours died along with two other friends and is a martyr. They had the same demand [as the Kurdish people] and nothing else. We all know that they demanded their rights, their human rights. The Prime Minister states that he is a Muslim. Yet this is not Islam. These are not requirements of human rights. He sends his son to America with falsified medical reports and makes the Turkish and Kurdish people fight each other. He makes these young people, these heroes to kill each other. He makes the poor children of the Turkish people die.”

On 11 November 2008 the Van public prosecutor filed a bill of indictment with the Van Assize Court, charging the applicant with disseminating propaganda in favour of the PKK. In the indictment, the public prosecutor alleged that in his speech the applicant had referred to the dead PKK militant as a “martyr” and a “hero” and had thereby disseminated propaganda in favour of the PKK.

The applicant submitted to the first-instance court that he had not had the intention to disseminate propaganda in favour of the PKK and that he might have used the word “martyr” as a slip of the tongue. He submitted that he had participated in funerals of deceased PKK members and deceased soldiers in Mu ş and that as a result of the psychological difficulties caused by those funerals he sometimes used such words.

On 27 February 2009 the Van Assize Court convicted the applicant as charged and sentenced him to ten months ’ imprisonment.

The applicant appealed.

On 26 June 2012 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgment of 11 November 2008.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complains under Article 10 of the Convention that his conviction and sentence under section 7(2) of Law no. 3713 constituted a violation of his right to freedom of expression .

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Has there been a violation of the applicant ’ s right to freedom of expression, protected by Article 10 of the Convention, on account of his conviction under section 7(2) of the Preve ntion of Terrorism Act (Law no. 3713)?

[1] . A pro-Kurdish television channel registered and broadcast abroad.