2015 prison census - Turkey: Kenan Karavil

Karavil, editor-in-chief of the pro-Kurdish radio station Radyo Dünya in the southern province of Adana, served more than three years in prison before being convicted on charges of being a member of the banned Union of Communities in Kurdistan, or KCK, and the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

As evidence, authorities cited news programs that Karavil produced, his meetings with members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, and his wiretapped telephone conversations with colleagues, listeners, and news sources, his lawyer, Vedat Özkan, told CPJ. In one phone conversation, Karavil discussed naming a program "Those Who Imagine the Island," the lawyer said. He said the indictment considered this illegal propaganda because it referred to the imprisonment of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who was being held in a prison on Imrali Island.

In a January 2012 letter to media outlets, Karavil said authorities questioned him about the station's ownership and the content of its programming. Court officials refused to allow Karavil to give statements in his native Kurdish language, Özkan said.

In January 2013, the Eighth Court of Serious Crimes in Adana Province sentenced Karavil to 25 years in prison, Özkan told CPJ. In October 2014, Özkan said the Supreme Court of Appeals had upheld the sentence.

He is currently at the Kirikkale F Type High Security Closed Prison in Adana, Özkan told CPJ.

Turkish attorney Hürrem Sönmez, who represents CPJ before the Turkish Justice Ministry, said an appeal that Karavil filed with Turkey's Constitutional Court was pending in late 2015. CPJ was unable to determine Karavil's health in 2015.