The lie that ‘the dam burst’ does not go away! Up to 4 years and 6 months imprisonment requested for Oğuzhan Uğur

Social media phenomenon Oğuzhan Uğur shared posts on his account named ‘BaBala TV’ that the dam in Kahramanmaraş Kumçatı village burst and Hatay Antakya Yarseli Dam cracked the day after the 2 major earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023, and the shares were shared among the citizens in the earthquake zone. An investigation was launched on the grounds that it caused fear and panic and caused disruptions in search and rescue efforts. The investigation carried out by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on the issue has been completed. In the indictment prepared, 8 people were listed as ‘complainants’; Oğuzhan Uğur, Kaan Kayacan and Ercan Özdemir were listed as ‘suspect’.

“SEARCH EFFORTS WERE DISRUPTED DUE TO SHARING”

In the indictment prepared, after the 2 major earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023, on the social media account called ‘BaBaLa TV’, on February 7, “Emergency – The dam in Kumçatı village in Kahramanmaraş Türkoğlu Nurdağı burst and was flooding, communication only for the authorities” and “Hatay Antakya” Yarseli dam has cracked, for God’s sake, send a team here, it’s raining a lot”, and after the posts, there were news in the media about the issue, stating that such a situation did not happen, and that search and rescue activities were disrupted in the earthquake area due to these allegations, causing fear and panic among the public. was explained.

“THE DAM CLAIM WAS DISPOSED AFTER IT WAS CONFIRMED, WE DID NOT INTEND TO CAUSE AN INFLATION”

In the indictment, which includes the statement of suspect Oğuzhan Uğur, suspect Uğur stated that his team made the posts from the account in question and said, ‘After the earthquake, volunteers came to our team working at BaBaLa TV. We provided space for volunteers to work. There was no specific person coordinating the tweeting part. We warned the team not to share any unconfirmed posts on Twitter before working with them. The team of 30-35 people who were authorized to make phone calls were conveying the news they received to our team of approximately 15 people who were authorized to tweet. After we received such outrage information after the posts were shared, after the checks we made, the audio recording and confirmation of the posts were obtained. This person is the suspect Ercan Özdemir, who was in the telephone conversation team. Özdemir was meeting with a woman who said she worked at the Ministry of Culture, information was obtained that the woman worked at the Ministry, and after this confirmation, a tweet was sent about the Yarseli Dam. As far as I remember, the suspect who posted the tweet is Özdemir. I don’t know who tweeted about Nurdağı. Although the tweets were dated February 7, the fact that the public was stirred up and the images of escape were dated February 11 is an indication that we did not aim to cause outrage. I did not make the 3 posts made from the account. There is a team that has been sleepless for days and aims to help. We supported the collection of millions of lira for the region. “Our only goal is to help the people of the region who were victims of the earthquake,” he said.

“IF OĞUZHAN UĞUR SAID IN HIS STATEMENT THAT I TWEETTED, THIS IS NOT TRUE”

In the statement of Ercan Özdemir, one of the suspects, he said, ‘After speaking to the lady on the phone, I forwarded the information she gave me to the confirmation team. I don’t know what the fact-checking team and the tweeting team did in the next stage, but I definitely did not tweet. Even though Oğuzhan Uğur said in his statement that I tweeted, this is not true because I do not have the authority to tweet. ‘I do not accept the accusations’ was stated.

SHARES WERE MADE SUITABLE TO DISTURB PUBLIC PEACE

In the prepared indictment, it is stated that untruthful posts were made on the social media account called BaBaLa TV in a way that could disrupt public peace, the user of the social media account was Oğuzhan Uğur, and the suspect Uğur stated in his petition submitted through his lawyer some time after his statement that the tweets were shared by the suspect Kaan Kayacan. It was recorded that Kayacan said that he did not remember this matter.

REQUEST FOR 4 YEARS AND 6 MONTHS IN PRISON

In the indictment, it was requested that the suspects Oğuzhan Uğur, Kaan Kayacan and Ercan Özdemir be sentenced to imprisonment from 1 year and 6 months to 4 years and 6 months separately for the crime of ‘publicly disseminating misleading information to the public through press and publication’. The trial of the suspects will begin in the coming days at the Istanbul Criminal Court of First Instance.