Radio Journalist Gürbüz to Be Tried for "MLKP Membership"

Nadiye Gürbüz, broadcasting editor for the Izmir Demokrat radio station, was arrested on 7 February, accused of membership in an illegal organisation, the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP).

Operations against the MLKP began in September 2006, and Gürbüz and eight others are accused of financial relations with the organisation.

Together with Gürbüz, former radio employee Mine Özalp, Metin Özalp, Hacı Çiçek and Sinan Gerçek from the Özgür radio station were taken into custody. While the others were released, Gürbüz and Mine Özalp were arrested.

Nine people on trial

In the indictment of Istanbul prosecutor Kadir Altınışık, completed on 12 March 2009, Sinan Gerçek, Sonnur Sağlamer, Sakine Solhasan, Mine Özalp, Handan Atacık, Nadiye Gürbüz, Hacı Çiçek, Metin Özalp and Nariye Coşkun are all accused of "aiding an armed organisation".

Their trial will begin on 27 August, to be heard at the Istanbul 9th Heavy Penal Court.

Based on a report by the Ministry of Finance, Gürbüz and the eight others are said to have been in contact wiht others on trial for organisational membership. Money is said to have been transferred to the organisation from abroad.

Other MLKP trial continues in November

As for the other 23 people on trial for alleged MLKP membership, among them Özgür Radio's broadcasting editor Füsun Erdoğan and weekly Atılım newspaper's editor-in-chief İbrahim Çiçek, their trial, in which life sentences are being demanded, continues on 6 November. (EÖ/AG)