Etkin News Agency (ETHA) editor Pınar Gayıp was released today after appearing at her first hearing, more than seven months after she was jailed following a February operation targeting socialist groups.
The İstanbul 23rd Heavy Penal Court ordered Gayıp’s release under judicial supervision, imposing a ban on traveling abroad.
Labor Party (EMEP) Deputy Chair and Gaziantep MP Sevda Karaca and numerous journalists attended the hearing at the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan. The courtroom was full.
Gayıp, who was brought to the hearing from Bakırköy Women’s Prison, presented her defense against the indictment. She said the prosecutor had built the charges against her around her journalistic activities.
'Journalism is like wearing a shirt of fire'
Gayıp began her defense by thanking those who had shown solidarity with her:
"At a time when telephone conversations we have with each other for news coverage and even money spent on tea are being cited as grounds for terrorist organization membership, I thank everyone who has stood in solidarity with me.
"For us revolutionary, socialist and opposition journalists, practicing journalism today is like wearing a shirt of flames."
BIA Media Monitoring Reports
When the presiding judge asked her to address the accusations in the indictment, Gayıp responded, "I am presenting a defense of journalism. I would ask you not to interrupt me."
Gayıp said she had reported on workers struggling with the cost of living, workplace conditions and villagers fighting to protect their land:
"They tell us, 'Don't report on these things. They tell us to forget the unionists defending resisting workers and report on the yellow unions instead. They tell us to forget the villagers protecting their land.
"I have been in prison for seven and a half months because I reported these stories."
'Arrested without seeing the prosecutor'
She said she had been referred to court without giving a statement and was arrested without appearing before the prosecutor.
During periodic reviews of her detention, she said she spent months trying to understand what she was accused of.
Gayıp said the indictment reached her about five and a half months after her arrest and addressed statements from witnesses included in the case file.
"The indictment contains statements by confessors, but all they have reported is my journalism," she said.
Addressing an accusation joining the funeral of Saturday Mothers member Emine Ocak, Gayıp said, "I didn't take part in that event, I covered it as a journalist. If I had not been there as a journalist, then yes, I could also have been there as a participant."
Wtiness testimonies
The court also heard testimony from witnesses.
Witness Arda Ata Özdoğan said he knew Gayıp as an ETHA employee. However, he alleged that news published by the agency are "determined" by the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) an outlawed armed group.
The allegation that ETHA and some other legal instutions, including the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), the Lawyers for Fr operate under the MLKP is central to the investigation thta led to the arrest of Gayıp and others.
He alleged that "the news published there is determined by the MLKP" and said he had last seen Gayıp at a 2024 commemoration organized by ESP.
Asked by the presiding judge what Gayıp had been doing there, Özdoğan said, "She was doing journalism and taking photographs."
When the judge asked whether he had seen Gayıp chanting slogans or throwing stones, Özdoğan replied, "No, I didn't."
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Another witness, Mustafa Tezel, said he did not know Gayıp. "I am seeing her for the first time in my life," he said.
After the presiding judge read out a previous statement attributed to him, Tezel said, "That statement is not mine."
A confidential witness who testified at the hearing said they remembered Gayıp from between 2015 and 2017.
"She was working as a journalist at ETHA at the time. I would see her at ESP protests and events. She was carrying out journalistic activities," the witness said.
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After the testimonies, Gayıp said, "The witnesses also said that I am a journalist."
Her lawyer, Emine Özhasar, described the media organizations Gayıp had worked for and the stories she had reported, arguing that the witnesses had also confirmed that she was a journalist.
"There is not a single witness who says who she received instructions from within an organization's hierarchy," Özhasar said. "It has not been established which organization's hierarchy she allegedly belonged to, and the accusation itself is not clear."
Prosecutor seeks continued detention
After the testimoines, the prosecutor requested that Gayıp remain in pretrial detention.
The court ordered the release of Gayıp, who had been held for nearly eight months, subject to a travel ban.
The next hearing is scheduled for Dec 7 at 10.15 am. (HA/VK)
