Justice right now!

The eighth hearing of the trial in which eighteen of our columnists and managers are in the dock on charges raised against our editorial policy will be held today in the courtroom opposite Silivri Prison. Following the hearing which is planned to last until Friday, the judgment is expected to be announced. Our Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, Attorney-at- Law, has been in detention for 541 days pending the trial.

The Cumhuriyet operation started with a police raid staged on the homes of thirteen of our columnists and managers on 31 October 2016 at the behest of prosecutor Murat İnam, a defendant on trial at the Court of Cassation charged with membership of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation. Nine Cumhuriyet staffers whom the prosecution alleged were “abetters of the PKK/KCC and FETO/PDY terrorist organisations” were placed in detention with reports and articles published in the paper cited as grounds. Apprehension orders were also issued for our Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, Attorney-at-Law, and our former Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar, who were abroad at that time. Subsequently returning home, Atalay was arrested and detained on flight risk considerations. Two months later, our reporter Ahmet Şık was also arrested and placed in detention charged with making FETO and PKK propaganda, with his articles cited as grounds.

Tardy indictment

The indictment against our columnists and managers was completed after they had spent 156 days in detention. Over this process, penal judgeships of the peace dismissed applications for release for no reason. It was alleged in the indictment, which was leaked to the pro-regime Sabah newspaper on 4 April, that our columnists and managers were aiding FETO, with our reports and articles cited as grounds. The arrests and detentions targeting our paper’s employees continued following the announcement of the indictment. Our transport service employee Yavuz Yakışkan was arrested on 5 April and our accounting service employee Emre İper one day later at the behest of one of the indictment prosecutors, Yasemin Baba.

Ruling awaited

Yakışkan was released after having spent thirteen days under arrest. İper, conversely, whose case was joined to the Cumhuriyet trial, remained in detention for nine months charged with using ByLock. Ankara Republic Chief Prosecution later announced that 11,480 people, including İper, had been directed against their wills to the ByLock network through using programs that had been embedded in the “Purple Brain” program.

Prosecutor Hacı Hasan Bölükbaşı announced his recommendations on the merits regarding the trial at the seventh hearing on 16 March of the trial being conducted by Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 27 In his recommendation, Bölükbaşı repeated the charges in the indictment on which the trial is based and stated, “Publishing activity as a whole is at issue in the trial.” Following the recommendation, the court permitted our columnists and managers along with their lawyers time to prepare their defences on the merits. At the judgment hearing slated to start today, the eighteen Cumhuriyet newspaper staffers on trial will present their defences on the merits. Once the lawyers have then completed their defences, our columnists and managers will be asked for their final comments and the judgment will be announced.

HABERİN TÜRKÇESİ İÇİN: Bugün yine Silivri’deyiz... Adalet hemen şimdi!