1st Hearing in Zaman Daily Trial Begins Today

The first hearing in the trial of Zaman Daily, in which 31 people are standing trial including closed Zaman daily’s former writers and employees charged with “coup attempt” is being held today.

Elif Akgül

1st Hearing in Zaman Daily Trial Begins Today

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The first hearing in the trial of Zaman Daily, in which 30 media employees including closed Zaman daily's former writers and employees Şahin Alpay, Ali Bulaç, Mümtazer Türköne, Ahmet T. Alkan, Nuriye Akman and Mustafa Ünal are standing trial is being held today (September 18).

22 of the 31 media employees are in detention on remand and the defendants are being charged with "coup attempt" and "being a member of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Organization (FETÖ/PDY)".

The case of Adil Gülçek, who was the former executive of Zaman daily before a trustee was appointed to the newspaper and was arrested on June 3, 2017, was combined with the main case thus increasing the number of arrested defendants to 22 and the total number of defendants to 31.

Zaman daily was closed through the Statutory Decree No. 668 issued on July 25, 2016 under the State of Emergency.

Observers of the Trial

Today's hearing of the trial before İstanbul 13th Heavy Criminal Court is being held in the courtroom set up at the campus of Silivri Penal Institution.

Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP İsmet Uçman, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Altan Tan, Republican People's Party (CHP) Sezgin Tanrıkulu, journalist Hasan Cemal and Georgia Nash from Article 19 are observing the hearing.

The defendants are making their statements in today's hearing.

Who is standing trial:

* Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş, Ahmet Turan Alkan, Alaattin Güner, Ali Bulaç, Cuma Kaya, Faruk Akkan, Hakan Taşdelen, Hüseyin Belli, Hüseyin Turan, İbrahim Karayeğen, İsmail Küçük, Mehmet Özdemir, Murat Avcıoğlu, Mustafa Ünal, Mümtazer Türköne, Onur Kutlu, Sedat Yetişkin, Şahin Alpay, Şeref Yılmaz, Yüksel Durgut, Zafer Özsoy, Adil Gülçek are in detention on remand standing trial.

* Ahmet İrem, Ali Hüseyinçelebi, Süleyman Sargın, Osman Nuri Arslan, Osman Nuri Öztürk, Lale Kemal (Lalezar Sarıibrahimoğlu), Nuriye Ural, Orhan Kemal Cengiz are standing trial without arrest.

There is an order to take İhsan Duran Dağı forcibly to testify.

Charges

The defendants are being charged with "attempting to annihilate the constitutional order", "attempting to overthrow the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey or to deter it from carrying out its duties", "attempting to overthrow the Government of the Republic of Turkey or to deter it from carrying out its duties", "being a member of an armed terrorist organization".

In accordance with the above mentioned charges, the defendants face three aggravated life imprisonments and 15 years in prison each.

What happened?

Following the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, operations have begun to be launched on media organizations known to be affiliated with the Gülen Community and that tens of journalists and media employees were taken into custody.

Osman Nuri Öztürk, Süleyman Sargın, Şeref Yılmaz, Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş, Alaattin Güner, Faruk Akkan, Mümtazer Türköne, Şahin Alpay, Ahmet Turan Alkan, Lale Kemal, Ali Bulaç, Sedat Yetişkin, Murat Avcıoğlu, Yüksel Durgut, Zafer Özsoy, Cuma Kaya, Hakan Taşdelen, Osman Nuri Arslan and Nuriye Ural were taken into custody during the first wave of detentions on September 27, 2016.

(EA/DG)

Elif Akgül

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Gazeteci. Aralık 2012-Haziran 2018 dönemi bianet İfade Özgürlüğü editörü. Öncesinde IMC TV'de muhabirlik yaptı. İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Sinema Televizyon Bölümü mezunu.