Lawyer Eren Keskin is the Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association, founder of the “Legal Assistance Office Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention,” and an honorary member of the Paris Bar Council. She has received numerous international awards for her peace and human rights efforts and was the recipient of the 2019 Martin Ennals Award in May.
A number of cases have been filed against Keskin, including for “spreading propaganda for an armed terrorist organization,” “denigrating the Turkish nation, the Republic of Turkey, and the institutions and organs of the State,” “insulting the President,” and “failure to publish article corrections demanded by authorities to previous news articles”. Most of these charges were brought against her for the work she has done as Editor-in-Chief of the Özgür Gündem daily newspaper between 2013 and 2016. She carried out this role at the newspaper to defend the right to freedom of expression and as a symbolic gesture to support the imprisoned editorial staff.
Over 100 cases have been lodged against her for news and articles written by other journalists exercising their right to freedom of expression. Moreover, there are ongoing cases against Keskin in which she is being charged with “denigrating the State” for several statements she made on behalf of Human Rights Association and for a speech discussing sexual harassment as a method of torture.
Keskin was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for using the term “Kurdistan” in an article she published in 1995. She was eventually released earlier, spending 6 months in prison.
Over the years, she has received many threats through letters, has been targeted in an armed attack in 1994 and 2001, and has been at constant risk of imprisonment The total number of lawsuits filed against Keskin is 143, but this number is 124 as some of the lawsuits have been combined. As a result of the trial of 120 cases, convictions including imprisonment and fines were given. Only four cases were dropped or Keskin was acquitted. Four case files are under review at the Court of Cassation and the Regional Court of Justice due to the appeals and appeals against the decisions rendered. The total prison sentence given to Keskin is currently 26 years, 9 months and 20 days. The sum of the fines given is 431.912 TL. 247.912 TL of these fines are included in the case files that are still being examined at the Court of Cassation. Keskin paid a fine of 184.000 TL., otherwise it would be commuted to a prison sentence.
Keskin was given a prison sentence of 3 years and 9 months at the last hearing of the Özgür Gündem Case held on 21 May 2019 before the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court. On 17 July 2019, in another case before the 13th High Criminal Court, Keskin's file was separated and merged with the Özgür Gündem Main Case file. The last hearing of this case held on 28 November 2019 at 23rd High Criminal Court. The court evaluated the demand of the prosecutor for time to prepare his opinion on the merits and postponed the hearing date to 13 January 2020. At the hearing on January 13, 2020, the public prosecutor announced his opinion and wanted Eren Keskin to be tried on charges of "membership of a terrorist organization", for four articles written by her and articles and visuals published during the period when she was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. The final hearing of the main trial of Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed by a Statutory Decree, was held at the İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court in İstanbul Çağlayan Courthouse on February 14, 2020. The court has ruled that the files of Zana (Bilir) Kaya, İnan Kızılkaya, Kemal Sancılı and Eren Keskin shall also be separated as time has been requested for their statements of defense as to the accusations. Eren Keskin was called to testify on June 12, 2020, due to the tweets she posted five years ago. The prosecution accuses Keskin of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization”. On the 16th of June 2020, her residence in Istanbul Maltepe was ransacked and the incident was made to appear as a robbery.
The first hearing of the case opened with the allegation of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" based on social media posts from five years ago was held on 22 October 2020 at the 36th High Criminal Court of Istanbul. The court board ruled that the request to merge the case with the file at the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court will be evaluated in the next cell.
The next hearing was held on December 24, 2020. The court decided to merge the existing file with the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court, where Keskin was tried for the same crime. At the decision hearing on February 15, 2021, the Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court sentenced Eren Keskin to 6 years and 3 months in prison on the charge of "membership in a terrorist organization".
In June 2021, a new investigation was launched against Eren Keskin with the allegation of “Targeting Persons Taking Part in the Fight Against Terrorism”. The reason for the investigation opened upon the complaint of the Deputy Commander General of the Gendarmerie, Lieutenant General Musa Çitil, is a social media post by Keskin. Eren Keskin drew a similarity between Çitil and Sergeant Musa Orhan, who was accused of raping İpek Er in Batman Gercüs and causing her death: "Years ago, there was a Musa Çitil before Musa Orhan. He was a commander in Mardin in the 90s. He was tried pending trial for sexual assault against Ş.E. He was acquitted. Years later, he was a commander in Diyarbakır 'Sur'."
In October 2021, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against nine lawyers who participated in the press statement held in front of the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse to protest the appointment of trustees to Diyarbakır, Van and Mardin Metropolitan Municipalities on 19 August 2019, alleging that they opposed the "Law on Meetings and Demonstrations No. 2911". One of these lawyers was Eren Keskin.
On the night of December 3, 2021, Eren Keskin's house was raided once again by the police. The police looked for Keskin, who was investigated for "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" for a speech she made in Dersim, two and a half years ago. The police, who could not find Keskin at home, later called her by phone to testify. This investigation later turned into a lawsuit.The first hearing of the trial in which Keskin is charged with "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" was held at the Tunceli 2nd High Criminal Court on 17 February 2022. The court decided that the acts subject to the accusation did not constitute an element of crime and acquitted Eren Keskin.
On April 14, 2022, the appeal upheld the prison sentence of 20 years and 10 months in total given to the newspaper's Privilege Owner Kemal Sancılı, Editor-in-Chief İnan Kızılkaya, Editor-in-Chief Zana Kaya and Eren Keskin in the main Özgür Gündem trial.
After the explosion on Istiklal Street in Taksim, Istanbul on November 13, 2022, lawyer Jiyan Tosun was targeted on social media by Zafer Party member Adem Taşkaya with the allegation of "perpetrator of the attack". The hate campaign also spread to İHD and Eren Keskin. Due to the death threats that lasted for days, Tosun and Keskin filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office.
A lawsuit was filed against Keskin, who reacted to the lawsuit filed against Deniz Poyraz's father, who was killed in the HDP building in Izmir, on the grounds of "insulting" and "targeting those who took part in the fight against terrorism".
Eren Keskin was awarded the Olof Palme Award in the first days of 2023. According to the statement made on the organization's website, Ukrainian psychologist Marta Chumalo, Iranian journalist-rights defender Narges Mohammadi, and Keskin were awarded "for their efforts to secure women's freedom in an age when human rights are threatened by war, violence and oppression".
The first hearing of the case opened against Keskin at the İzmir 18th High Criminal Court for "insulting a public official" and "targeting those who took part in the fight against terrorism" was held on February 23, 2023. Eren Keskin attended the hearing from Istanbul through SEGBİS. Presenting his opinion on the merits, the prosecutor demanded Keskin's acquittal of "insulting a public official", while demanding that he be punished for "targeting people who took part in the fight against terrorism". The lawyers requested time to prepare their defense against the opinion on the merits. Accepting the request, the court adjourned the case to 1 June 2023.
She was detained at İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport on April 15, 2023. Announcing her detention on her Twitter account, Keskin wrote, "An arrest warrant was issued due to my social media posts. The prosecutor gave 5 days to testify. Saturday's Mothers are still in custody," she wrote.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, jointly established by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), published an announcement on January 30, 2024 about threats against Human Rights Association (IHD) Co-Chairman Eren Keskin and IHD. They called on the international community to take action on the issue. In the announcement, it was stated that racist accounts on the social media platform X targeted Eren Keskin and IHD through criticism of Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide and its failure to apologize and provide compensation.
The third hearing of the retrial of the case in which Eren Keskin is on trial with Hüseyin Aykol, Ayşe Batumlu Kaya and Reyhan Çapan on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "public incitement to commit a crime" due to their articles in the Özgür Gündem newspaper, was held at the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, in 20 Februrary, 2024. At the end of the short hearing, the court accepted writer Akyol's request to be postponed from the hearings and decided to take the statements of Reyhan Çapanlı and Eren Keskin regarding the merger and to ask the fate of Ayşe Batumlu Kaya's other file in the Court of Appeal and postponed the hearing to 6 June 2024.
The case in which Eren Keskin and IHD Commission Against Racism and Discrimination Member Gülistan Yarkın were tried for the Armenian Genocide commemoration organized by IHD in 2021 was heard on February 27, 2023, at the 51st Criminal Court of First Instance of Istanbul Courthouse. While their lawyers asked for the acquittal of their clients, the prosecutor requested that they be given time to make an opinion and eliminate the missing issues. The court accepted the request and postponed the hearing to March 26, 2024.
The prosecutor, who presented his opinion on the merits at the hearing on March 26, 2024, requested that Keskin and Yarkın be punished. The next hearing is on May 2, 2024.
Many legal organizations and lawyers who wanted to protest the cancellation of the legal rights of Abdullah Zeydan, who received 55 percent of the votes in Van in the Local Elections of 31 March 2024, gathered in Çağlayan on 3 April. The lawyers who wanted to make a statement were beaten and detained by the police. Eren Keskin was among the detained lawyers. The lawyers were later released.
