Two Turkish editors released after first hearing over ‘inciting crime’

ISTANBUL

Nokta’s editor-in-chief Cevheri Güven. DHA Photo

Two editors of weekly news magazine Nokta who were arrested over charges of “inciting an armed uprising against the Turkish government” were released on Dec. 29.  

An Istanbul court ruled for the release of the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Cevheri Güven, and its chief news editor, Murat Çapan, on Dec. 29 after the first hearing of the trial.

Güven and Çapan were arrested on Nov. 3 as part of an investigation launched into the magazine’s 24th edition, which showed a picture of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on its cover alongside the headline “Nov. 2: The beginning of Turkey’s civil war.” Prosecutors said the cover “overtly incited people to commit crime” and “encouraged sedition.”

The prosecutor had demanded between 15 and 20 years in jail for Güven and Çapan, who both denied all charges.

As part of the investigation, an Istanbul court had also ordered the confiscation of all copies of the magazine on the grounds that its cover “incites crime.” The magazine had also been confiscated less than two months before, after a court ruled that it had “insulted the president.”