Trial of Turkey opposition newspaper staff resumes

IThe controversial trial of staff from Turkey’s main opposition newspaper accused of terror links resumed Monday, in a case which has raised alarm over press freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Seventeen current and former writers, cartoonists and executives from Cumhuriyet (“Republic”) are accused of supporting three “armed terrorist organisations”.

They face up to 43 years in prison and four of them are already in jail. Their supporters say the charges are absurd and the daily says the trial is an attempt to silence one of the last independent newspapers in Turkey.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the court in Istanbul on Monday, holding signs saying “You are not alone, we are not alone”, “Justice for all” and “Freedom for all journalists”.

Some held Monday’s Cumhuriyet whose front page read: “Justice immediately”. The daily is fiercely critical of Erdogan and has run front page stories that have angered the president.

“This trial is a symbol of the attempt to silence freedom of expression in Turkey. It is a symbol of pressure on journalists,” Gulendam San Karabulutlar, a defence lawyer, said before the trial began.

The 17 are charged with supporting through their coverage three organisations Turkey views as terror groups — the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the ultra-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), and the movement of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed by Ankara for last year’s attempted putsch.

Those already in jail include the paper’s chairman Akin Atalay and editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, imprisoned for 421 days, as well as investigative reporter Ahmet Sik, in prison for 360 days. Accountant Emre Iper has been imprisoned for 263 days.