21 Journalists Standing Trial in FETÖ Investigation Released

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21 of the 29 journalists and writers including Atilla Taş and Murat Aksoy who were standing trial over investigation launched following the July 15 coup attempt upon accusations of being affiliated with the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), have been released.

İbrahim Loğasdağı, the President of the court passing the verdict in the trial held before İstanbul 25th High Criminal Court of Justice, has ruled that Abdullah Kılıç, Ahmet Memiş, Ali Akkuş, Atilla Taş, Bayram Kaya, Bünyemin Köseli, Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Cihan Acar, Cuma Ulus, Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu, Habip Güler, Halil İbrahim Balta, Hanım Büşra Erdal, Hüseyin Aydın, Muhammet Sait Kuloğlu, Murat Aksoy, Mustafa Erkan Acar, Oğuz Usluer, Seyid Kılıç, Yakup Çetin and Yetkin Yıldız be released.

The court has ruled that Davut Aydın, Emre Soncan, Mutlu Çölgeçen, Ufuk Şanlı and Ünal Tanık remain further under arrest on the grounds that not all necessary evidence was collected and that there was no need to apply the rules of release on probation in favor of the suspect when taken into account the lower and upper limits of time in prison required for the crimes in question and the times the suspects have already served in prison.

The prosecutor of the case had recommended today (March 31) that 13 of the journalists be released with an international travel ban.

The next hearing will be held on April 27.

What Happened?

On August 30, 2016, İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had issued a detention order for 35 people including several academics and journalists as part of the investigation launched into the FETÖ following the coup attempt on July 15. 27 of the 35 detainees were arrested later. The journalists and writers arrested on different days, had been waiting to stand trial for eight days.

The state-run Anadolu News Agency had reported on the detention order for the journalists and writers under "Operation against the media organization of FETÖ".

The suspects of the trial are employers, owners and writers of Millet daily, Cihan News Agency, Zaman daily, Meydan daily, Yeni Hayat daily, Bugün daily and Rota News, Samanyolu News websites.

There are 29 suspects standing trial 26 of whom are arrested. Warrant has been issued to take two suspects forcibly to testify.
Said Sefa faces 22,5 and the other 28 suspects face 15 years in prison each.

The names of those who stood trial are as follows:

Abdullah Kılıç, Ahmet Memiş, Ali Akkuş, Atilla Taş, Bayram Kaya, Bülent Ceyhan, Bünyemin Köseli, Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Cihan Acar, Cuma Ulus, Davut Aydın, Emre Soncan, Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu, Habip Güler, Halil İbrahim Balta, Hanım Büşra Erdal, Hüseyin Aydın, Muhammet Sait Kuloğlu, Muhterem Tanık, Murat Aksoy, Mustafa Erkan Acar, Mutlu Çölgeçen, Oğuz Usluer, Said Sefa, Seyid Kılıç, Ufuk Şanlı, Ünal Tanık, Yakup Çetin, Yetkin Yıldız. (NV/DG)