Journalist Ayşegül Doğan faces up to 15 years in prison

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Charged with "establishing and leading an armed organization," journalist Ayşegül Doğan had her fifth hearing yesterday (October 7).

Standing trial at the 9th Heavy Penal Court in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Doğan was the Program Coordinator of the İMC TV channel, which was closed by a Statutory Decree.

Facing charges over her meetings and interviews with the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) executives and the meetings she attended as part of her journalistic activities, she now faces up to 15 years in prison.

Yesterday's hearing was attended by the journalist's attorneys Mehmet Emin Aktar and Ahmet Özmen while she herself was not present in the courtroom as she had presented an excuse for her absence.

First, the documents added to the case file were read out, then the prosecutor presented his opinion as to the accusations. The opinion not read out by the prosecutor was directly pasted on the court minutes by the clerk.

The prosecutor has demanded that journalist Doğan be sentenced to 7.5 years to 15 years in prison on charge of "organization membership."

Request for extension of inquiry

Speaking at the hearing, Doğan's attorney Ahmet Özmen demanded time to make defense. Attorney Mehmet Aktar also expressed their request for the extension of the inquiry before the defense as to the accusations.

Referring to the phone calls of Doğan wiretapped as part of another investigation against the DTK and added to another case file, attorney Aktar said that the tapes in question confirmed what Doğan said. Presenting the related document to the court board, Aktar requested that a copy of the document be demanded from the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Court has rejected the requests

Evaluating the requests of the attorneys in a short break, the court has rejected the request that the speech tapes of Doğan be demanded from the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office "as it would not add anything new to the trial." Giving the attorneys time to make defense as to the accusations, the court has ruled that the next hearing shall be held on December 7, 2020. (HA/SD)