Turkish court remands four newspaper staff, frees seven

Record ID: 904462

  • Title: Turkish court remands four newspaper staff, frees seven
  • Date: 28th July 2017
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 28, 2017) (REUTERS) SUPPORTERS OF CUMHURIYET NEWSPAPER, JOURNALISTS AND ACTIVISTS GATHERED OUTSIDE ISTANBUL'S CAGLAYAN COURTHOUSE VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING POSTERS AND SIGNS VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (Turkish): "RIGHTS, LAW, JUSTICE" CUMHURIYET NEWSPAPERS BEING HELD BY DEMONSTRATORS CUMHURIYET TRIAL COMMITTEE SPOKESPERSON, ERTUGRUL MAVIOGLU, READING RULING FROM HIS PHONE VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (Turkish): "WE WANT ALL OF THEM" (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) SPOKESMAN FOR CUMHURIYET TRIAL COMMITTEE, ERTUGRUL MAVIOGLU, SAYING: "Everything went through as foreseen. With this trial that will be marked as the "Cumhuriyet trial" in history, the known facts are confirmed again. Cumhuriyet trial is the trial of freedom. We won it. The ones who do not bow down, the ones that say; let the tyrants know that tyranny can never block the flow of history, have won." VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (Turkish): "RIGHTS, LAW, JUSTICE" (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) PEOPLE'S REPUBLICAN PARTY MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, BARIS YARKADAS, SAYING: "Journalism had been operated on and even neutered with a blunt scalpel which is given by the hand of a bad surgeon. However after the imprisonment of 270 days and the hearings that lasted for 5 days, we have seen that journalists in this country will keep on doing their journalism. The ruling that has been given is a wrong one. Not only 7 of our friends but all of them have to be released, even be acquitted." VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING (Turkish): "RIGHTS, LAW, JUSTICE" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING POSTERS WITH CARICATURES BY CUMHURIYET NEWSPAPER CARICATURIST, MUSA KART READING (Turkish): "FREEDOM TO MUSA KART"
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2017 19:24
  • Keywords: Turkey arrests Cumhuriyet newspaper Journalists trial Istanbul court ruling
  • Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • City: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016RMVFWN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Turkish court ruled on Friday (July 28) that four prominent members of an opposition newspaper must remain in detention but freed seven others for the duration of the trial.
    Since the first hearing in the case on Monday, hundreds of people have protested outside the central Istanbul court against the prosecution of 17 writers, executives and lawyers of the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper.
    The court remanded the chairman of Cumhuriyet's executive committee Akin Atalay, its chief editor Murat Sabuncu, and reporters Kadri Gursel and Ahmet Sik until the next hearing on September 11, citing the gravity of the charges they face.
    Chief judge Abdurrahman Orkun Dag said seven others, including caricaturist Musa Kart, were released until the next hearing on judicial probation - meaning they cannot leave the country and must report regularly to a police station.
    Gursel, along with Sabuncu and other senior staff, has been in pre-trial detention for more than 260 days.
    Prosecutors are seeking up to 43 years in jail for the paper's staff, including some of Turkey's best-known journalists, who are accused of targeting President Tayyip Erdogan.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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