A delegation from the International Press Institute (IPI) will monitor the seventh and final hearing in the criminal trial against over a dozen journalists and staff members of the independent Turkish daily newspaper, Cumhuriyet on spurious terrorism-related charges.
IPI Turkey Advocacy Coordinator, Caroline Stockford, who will lead the delegation, called the proceedings a ‘show trial’. “Cumhuriyet and its journalists, who have already spent a collective amount of nine-and-ahalf years in pre-trial detention, are being prosecuted for the ‘crime’ of critically reporting on the AKP regime,” Stockford said.
“Prosecutors have produced no concrete evidence for the charges of links to terrorist organizations. Anything other than a complete acquittal and compensation for the defendants for the violation of their rights will be an outright injustice,”he added. IPI representatives will have attended six out of the seven hearings in the trial, which began in July, 2017. Representatives will be available to comment on the proceedings this week in both English and Turkish. Verdicts in the case are expected on Friday, April 27.
Among the prominent defendants in the case are Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief, Murat Sabuncu, investigative reporter, Ahmet Şık and columnist, Kadri Gürsel, all of whom are IPI members and who spent 16, 14 and 11 months in pre-trial detention, respectively. Gürsel is also a member of IPI’s global executive board. Other defendants include cartoonist, Musa Kart and book supplement editor, Turhan Günay, who were jailed for nine months before being released last July. Akın Atalay, the chair of the Executive Committee of the Cumhuriyet Foundation, is the only defendant still in pre-trial detention.
The defendants are charged with lending support to multiple terror organisations of vastly different stripes: the Kurdish PKK, the extreme-left DHKP-C, and FETÖ, a government designation for the movement led by exiled cleric, Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkey blames for the 2016 coup attempt. Prosecutors are seeking lengthy prison terms.
