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The hearing of the trial brought against the Cumhuriyet daily’s Ankara Representative Erdem Gül and its former Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar was held yesterday (September 21) before İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court.
Erdem Gül was present at the hearing yet Can Dündar, who has stated that he would be in Germany until the State of Emergency was lifted, did not attend.
The court had decided to hold the trial in secret before the hearing began.
The Prosecutor has demanded that Gül and Dündar’s trial be combined with the case of Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy and former journalist Enis Berberoğlu. The court, recognizing the claim, has combined both cases and postponed the hearing to November 16.
Charges were brought against CHP İstanbul Deputy Enis Berberoğlu for providing footage of the MİT trucks to Can Dündar and therefore having committed the crimes of “Providing confidential information and documents of the state for military and political spying purposes,” as well as knowingly and willfully aiding the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization - Parallel State Organization (FETÖ-PDY). The bill of indictment demanding up to 30 years in prison for Berberoğlu was accepted by the court.
The journalists Dündar and Gül are being tried on charges of “knowingly and willfully aiding an armed terrorist organization as non-members”. The charges are grounded on the journalists’ reports on the Trucks of National Intelligence Agency (MİT), which were carrying howitzers, shells and bullets hidden under drug containers.
In January 2014, it had been reported that there were weapons and ammunition in the trucks, which were pulled up in Adana and Hatay while transporting materials from Turkey to Syria, yet the Government and intelligence sources had claimed that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid materials for the Turkmen. (EA/NV/DG)
