Prosecutor seeks life imprisonment for professionals of Turkey's Özgür Gündem newspaper
Investigations on the executives and authors of Özgür Gündem newspaper have been completed. While the newspaper was shut down with the order of a statutory decree passed under state of emergency after the coup attempt, 9 people – executives and authors – were charged with ‘having ties to PKK’, ‘being a member of the terrorist organization’, ‘carrying out propaganda for the terrorists’, and ‘disrupting the unity and sovereignty of the State’.
In the indictment, prosecutor Umut Tepe seeks ‘aggravated life imprisonment’ and jail sentence from six and a half to seventeen and a half years for all 9 suspects, 5 of whom are tried without arrest. The newspaper is deemed as ‘the news source of the terrorist organization’ in the indictment.
Lawyer Kılıç: ‘There is absolutely no legal or tangible ground’
Lawyer of the newspaper Özcan Kılıç drew attention to the release of the content of the indictment by the pro-government newspaper Sabah and said operation against Özgür Gündem has been a ‘part of a political plot since the very beginning’.
Kılıç added: “Announcing the indictment to the public in this way is a perception operation. It is unacceptable for executives of a legal newspaper to be considered as members of a terrorist organization... There is absolutely no legal or tangible ground for the accusations.”