Acquittal of human rights defender Bülent Şık

On 30 April 2021, the 13th Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice (Court of Appeals) published its decision to acquit Bülent Şık, overturning a 15 month prison sentence issued against him by the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance in November 2019, on charges of “disclosing work secrets”. On 5 May 2021, the prosecutor of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice appealed the acquittal taking the case to the Court of Cassation.

Bülent Şık is a human rights defender and an academic, working on public health, food safety and the right to a healthy environment. He was a member of the research team contracted by the Ministry of Health to research the connection between the high occurrence of cancer cases and the level of toxicity of soil, water and food in five cities between 2011 and 2016. He was forced to resign from the project after he signed a petition entitled “We will not be accessory to this crime”, publicly known as the Academics for Peace petition.

The Ministry-led research revealed that the food and water samples taken from the region contained high levels of pesticides, heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which threaten the public health. Bülent Şık published the research in 2018, given the ongoing threat to public health due to the lack of remedial measures and that information about the threat was still not available in the public domain. Following the publication, the Ministry of Health filed a complaint against the human rights defender, leading to a criminal investigation being opened against him. Bülent Şık was charged with “disclosing work secrets” and “providing and disclosing forbidden information”. On 26 September 2019, Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted the human rights defender of the charge of “providing and disclosing forbidden information” while finding him guilty of “disclosing work secrets”.

In its decision to acquit Bülent Şık, the Court of Appeals stated that the clause in the protocol between the Ministry of Health and Akdeniz University prohibiting the disclosure of the results of the study without prior permission of the Ministry of Health should be understood as that the Ministry would publish the results itself and so the study and its findings could not be considered as confidential. Based on this assessment, the Court of Appeals overturned the human rights defender's sentence and ruled for his acquittal.

In its appeal against the court's decision to acquit Bülent Şık however, the prosecutor argued that according to the protocol signed between the University and the Ministry, the results of the research could not be published without the minister's permission and, in the case that the ministry refused to allow for it to be published, the publication of the research findings should be sought through legal means. The prosecutor stated that the human rights defender did not follow this procedure and justified his act by referencing the ministry's failure to publish the findings.

The Ministry of Health is yet to publish the findings of the study, indicating that Bülent Şık, in his decision to publish the results of the study, was acting in the public interest and upholding the right to health and a healthy environment. Front Line Defenders is concerned that the human rights defender has been punished for his efforts to share critical information in the interest of public health. Whilst Front Line Defenders welcomes the initial acquittal of human rights defender Bülent Şık, the organisation condemns the appeal against the acquittal and believes that the only just and right decision by the Court of Cassation is to uphold the decision of the Court of Appeals.

On 30 May 2019, the second hearing of academic and human rights defender Bülent Şık was held at Istanbul’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. Bülent Şık is charged with “disclosing work secrets” and “providing and disclosing forbidden information” in relation to four articles that he published in the newspaper Cumhuriyet in April 2018. The articles reported on the findings of the Ministry of Health-led research study conducted in conjunction with Akdeniz University, endangering public health and thus threatening the right to health of the people. He is facing a prison sentence of between five and twelve years.

During the first hearing held on 7 February 2019, the Court asked the Ministry of Health to provide information regarding whether any official decision had been taken by the Ministry to keep the results of the research confidential. On 30 May 2019, the Ministry presented the Court with an agreement made with the university. Bülent Şık underlined the fact that although the agreement stated that it was up to the Ministry to decide on the publication of the results, the document did not contain a confidentiality clause.

During the first hearing, the Court had also appointed an expert to investigate whether there was any other article, report or essay related to this issue, apart from the four articles published by Bülent Şık in Cumhuriyet. According to the statement of his lawyers made during the second hearing, the expert report confirmed that information published by Bülent Şık had been known to the general public before the publication of the four articles.

In the statement made on 30 May 2019, Bülent Şık emphasised the paramount importance of prevention and protection in the area of public health, and requested the Court to investigate whether the Ministry of Health had taken the necessary measures to protect public health in the context of the research results. The Court rejected this request on the grounds that such investigation would not contribute to his case.

The lawyers requested the immediate acquittal of Bülent Şık, arguing that both the Ministry of Health’s response and the expert report proved that he had not committed the crimes at issue. However, the Court rejected their request.

The Court gave Bülent Şık and his lawyers time until the next hearing to provide their statements as to the accusations, and scheduled it for 26 September 2019 at 2 pm. The final verdict is expected to be announced then.

Front Line Defenders expresses concern about the ongoing judicial harassment of Bülent Şık, as it believes that the charges against him are solely related to his peaceful and legitimate activities in defence of human rights.

The first hearing of academic and human rights defender Bülent Şık will be held on 7 February 2019 at Istanbul’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance in Çağlayan Courthouse. He is charged with “disclosing work secrets” and “providing and disclosing forbidden information” in relation to a series of articles he published, which reported on the findings of Ministry of Health-led research about environmental pollution that was endangering public health. He faces a prison sentence of between five to twelve years.

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Bülent Şık is a human rights defender working on public health, food safety and the right to a healthy environment. He previously conducted research on areas such as toxic chemicals in food and drinking water and their impact on public health. He was an academic and Technical Assistant Director of the Food Safety and Agricultural Research Center at Akdeniz University. He was also a signatory to the 2016 Academics for Peace petition “We will not be party to this crime”, which called for peace in South Eastern Turkey. He was dismissed from his position by emergency decree in November 2016. He is also facing charges of “terrorist propaganda” for signing the peace petition and his trial continues at Istanbul’s 22nd High Criminal Court.

Between 2011 and 2016, the Ministry of Health carried out research in the provinces of Kocaeli, Kırklareli, Edirne, Tekirdağ and Antalya on the contamination of soil, food, air and water by carcinogenic chemicals and their potential risks to human health. Bülent Şık was one of the researchers contracted by the Ministry. In 2016, the human rights defender was forced to resign from the project after he signed the petition of Academics for Peace.

Given the ongoing threat to public health due to the lack of remedial measures and that information about the threat was still not in the public domain, Bülent Şık decided to publish the research in 2018. Between 16 and 19 April 2018, Bülent Şık published four articles in the newspaper Cumhuriyet on his findings.

Upon complaint of the Ministry of Health, a criminal investigation was opened against  Bülent Şık  and  an indictment was subsequently issued. Although the indictment was first issued by the Prosecutor’s Office for Press-related Crimes, the investigation was later referred to the Prosecutor’s Office for Terrorism-related Crimes, and the indictment issued by that office was accepted by the court. The human rights defender is charged with “disclosing work secrets” and “providing and disclosing forbidden information.” His first hearing will be held at 10.45am on 7 February 2019.

More recently, a second criminal investigation was opened against Bülent Şık to determine whether his social media posts constituted “terrorist propaganda”. He was summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office on 5 January 2019  for questioning about four articles he published in the online newspaper Bianet between 2015 and 2018, on the impact of armed conflict on environmental and public health in Turkey and the Middle East. He was also asked about having shared, on his social media account, the press release “War is a Public Health Problem” issued by the Turkish Medical Association calling for peace in South Eastern  Turkey. The prosecutor is expected to make a decision on the outcome of the investigation against Bülent Şık in the coming weeks.

Front Line Defenders expresses its concern on the judicial harassment of Bülent Şık as it is believed that the charges are solely related to his peaceful and legitimate activities in defence of human rights.