Istanbul court accepts indictment against arrested Turkish journalists

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

AFP photo

An Istanbul court accepted the indictment prepared against arrested Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül on Feb. 5.

The Istanbul 14th Court of Serious Crimes accepted the indictment completed on Jan. 27, in which Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Gül face aggravated life sentences.

The first hearing of the case will be held on March 25. The court will also evaluate a request to combine the case with the Selam Tevhid case, which is investigating the alleged wiretapping of hundreds of lawmakers and civil servants and the creation of a fake terrorist group.

Meanwhile, Dündar and Gül’s demand for pre-trial release was rejected by the court.

Dündar and Gül face one account each of “gathering secret state documents for the purposes of political and military espionage,” “attempting to topple the government of the Republic of Turkey or attempting to stop either partially or totally the government from fulfilling its duties” and “deliberate support for a terrorist organization without being a member.”

They were arrested on terrorism charges on Nov. 26, 2015 over their newspaper’s story on trucks owned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), which were stopped and searched in southern Turkey in early 2014 while allegedly carrying weapons to opposition forces in Syria fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime.