Former president Gül says it will be more right to try Cumhuriyet journalists without arrest

ISTANBUL

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül said on July 28 that it would be more appropriate to try daily Cumhuriyet journalists without arrest. 

“I am saying that it is right to always try journalists without arrest, and now I think that it is more right to try [Cumhuriyet] journalists without arrest. No doubt, the court will give a verdict according to its own conviction. However, I think that it will be an element that would relieve the government in Turkey at home and abroad,” Gül told reporters following Friday prayers in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul.

The last day of the first hearings in the case of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives began on July 28, as a verdict is expected to be announced in the evening hours. 

All 17 journalists and executives from the daily have testified over the past five days.