Court accepts indictment into coup soldiers’ raid on Doğan Media Center

ISTANBUL

The Istanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court has accepted an indictment into the raid on daily Hürriyet, the Hürriyet Daily News, CNN Türk and Kanal D at the Doğan Media Center in Istanbul’s Bağcılar district on the night of the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. 

The Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has demanded three aggravated life sentences and 15 years in prison for each of the 19 soldiers, of whom three are under arrest and five are high-ranking. 

The first hearing of the case will be held on July 17 and will continue until July 20.  

The court ruled for the continuation of the arrests of former captains Süleyman Kaya, Mehmet Akif Aslan and Erdal Şeker. 

In addition to the aforementioned arrested suspects, former noncommissioned officers Muhammet Orhan Kaya and Muhammet Çınar and 14 soldiers are listed as suspects in the indictment. 

Vedat Barceğci was involved in the indictment as “deceased” and four people who were wounded in the raid were named as “victims.”

The prosecutor is demanding hundreds of years in jail for the suspects on several charges, including “attempting to remove or replace the constitutional order of the Turkish Republic,” “attempting to prevent the practice of the current constitutional order by using force and violence,” “attempting to destroy the Turkish Parliament or preventing it from carrying out its duties by using force and violence” and “being members of an armed terrorist organization.”