Turkish court sentences head of Turkish Medical Association Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı to 32 months in prison for “terrorist propaganda”

ISTANBUL – The head of the Turkish Medical Association and forensic specialist Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı was today sentenced by a Turkish court to 2 years, 8 months and 15 days in prison on charges of making “propaganda for a terrorist organization”. However, the 24th Istanbul High Criminal Court in Çağlayan also decided, the forensic specialist may await sentence outside prison pending ratification of her sentence by a higher court.

Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur-Fincancı has been in prison since late October 2002 after she had called for an investigation into reports of the use of chemical weapons by Turkey against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq. She was targeted since by the authoritarian and nationalist AKP-MHP government. In Turkey, the PKK is an outlawed for terrorist activities.

Outside of the courtroom sympathizers gathered and cheered ”Şebnem Hodja is Our Honor!”