Print version Email to a friend

Turkish journalists denied release in conspiracy case

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

(Recasts with suspects being denied release, adds quote, background)

By Evrim Ergin

ISTANBUL, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Prominent Turkish journalists charged with involvement in an alleged plot to overthrow the government were denied release from custody on Friday in a trial that has become a rallying point for criticism of Turkey's record on media freedom.

The United States, the European Union and rights groups have criticised Ankara's prosecution of journalists which they say taints Turkey's image as a role model for democracy in the Middle East.

Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, investigative journalists held since March in a top-security prison outside Istanbul, were among 11 detained defendants who appeared in court on Friday. Turkish media reports had said they were expecting to be released.

But after a hearing that lasted from morning until shortly before midnight, the court voted unanimously that the 11 defendants should remain in prison during the trial.

"As the collection of evidence has not yet been entirely completed and due to a strong suspicion of crime, the court voted unanimously that the detention of the 11 suspects continue," Sedat Celik, a lawyer for one of the defendants, writer Yalcin Kucuk, told Reuters.

Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom to witness the final verdict but relatives and friends of the accused looked dejected as they left the court following the decision to deny the suspects' release.

Two other defendants who are not being held in custody are also being tried, and one of them, Ayfer Iklim Bayraktar, gave her defence on Friday. Earlier, the judge had ordered other defendants to leave the court after Bayraktar wept repeatedly.

"I first came face to face with most of the defendants while detained or in the courtroom," Bayraktar told the court. "What sort of a gang is it when none of us knows each other?

"I am not a defendant of this case, I am a victim."

If found guilty the defendants face a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Lawyers for the defendants argue that computer documents central to the evidence against their clients were introduced by computer viruses and that this had been confirmed by investigations conducted by four universities.

"The evidence which forms the basis for this trial is completely faulty," Celik told Reuters earlier on Friday.

"A MASSACRE OF JUSTICE"

Sener and Sik have already offered their defences, calling the charges against them politically motivated and "a massacre of justice". They signed books for spectators in court in a sign of the public attention attracted by their case.

Sik has written a book about alleged infiltration of the police by an Islamic movement led by reclusive theologian Fethullah Gulen, who is living in self-exile in the United States and considered close to parts of the ruling AK Party.

Sener is an award-winning journalist who has written about police negligence in failing to prevent the 2007 murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The defendants are accused of belonging to 'Ergenekon', an alleged ultra-nationalist group accused by prosecutors of being behind multiple conspiracies against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government.

Turkey is holding nearly 100 members of the news media in jail, one of the highest numbers worldwide, although the government says that they are not being prosecuted because of what they have written or broadcast.

Critics accuse the government of scare-mongering over Ergenekon to silence opponents. The government denies any such motives. Rights groups also criticised the length of time defendants remain in custody awaiting trial.

In December, President Abdullah Gul said he was "disturbed" by the lengthy detentions and said trials should be accelerated.

But European Union candidate Turkey has long been criticised over media freedom and the head of the Council of Europe's human rights body said during a visit to Turkey in November Ankara needed to change its attitude to media freedom laws.

Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said Turkey had 16,000 cases pending in the European Court of Human Rights, of which about 1,000 concerned media freedom, a situation he said had "a chilling effect" on freedom of expression.

Several hundred suspects, including retired senior military officers, academics, lawyers and journalists have been detained in cases related to Ergenekon.

Among defendants in the case are Soner Yalcin, editor of Oda TV, and several colleagues from the television website known for its criticism of the government.

(Reporting by Evrim Ergin; Writing by Daren Butler and Jonathon Burch)