Prosecutor demands journalists be penalized for covering Albayrak’s hacked emails

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The prosecutor's office has pronounced its final opinion as to the accusations in the trial over the news reports regarding the leaked emails of the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak.

Pronouncing its opinion ahead of the 13th hearing tomorrow (December 9), the office has demanded that BirGün journalist Mahir Kanaat, Diken news website's former editor Tunca Öğreten, closed Dicle News Agency's (DİHA) News Director Ömer Çelik, reporter Metin Yoksu, Yolculuk Newspaper Managing Editor Eray Sargın and Etkin News Agency (ETHA) Managing Director Derya Okatan be penalized for "giving or obtaining data unlawfully".

Citing their social media messages, the office has also requested that Derya Okatan, Eray Sargın, Metin Yoksu and Ömer Çelik be penalized for "repeatedly propagandizing for an organization" while it has requested the acquittal of Öğreten and Kanaat on "membership" charges.

The journalists have been on trial on charges of "membership of a [terrorist/illegal] organization", "blocking information system" and "destroying data". They will appear before the judge for the 13th time as part of this case at the İstanbul 29th High Criminal Court tomorrow.

ECtHR convicted Turkey

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in mid-May 2021, concluded that the rights of journalists Mahir Kanaat and Tunca Öğreten were violated by their arrest for reporting on the emails of the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak that were leaked by RedHack.

The ECtHR indicated that downloading and reporting on the emails of Berat Albayrak, who is also the son-in-law of President and ruling AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, fell within the scope of freedom of press. The related emails of Albayrak were also published in WikiLeaks.

The ECtHR noted that charging journalists Kanaat and Öğreten with "being members of a terrorist organization" without any concrete evidence due to the news that they reported was not lawful.

Concluding that "the right to personal liberty and security" and "freedom of expression and press" of journalists Mahir Kanaat and Tunca Öğreten were violated, the ECtHR ruled that Turkey should pay 38 thousand 250 Euro in total to the journalists in damages.

According to the judgment of the ECtHR, Öğreten will now be paid 5 thousand 700 Euro in pecuniary damages, while both journalists will each be paid 14 thousand Euro in non-pecuniary damages. Turkey will also pay 2 thousand 250 Euro for the court expenses.

CLICK - ECtHR convicts Turkey in RedHack case

What happened?

On December 25, 2016, BirGün employee Mahir Kanaat, Diken news website's former editor Tunca Öğreten, closed Dicle News Agency's News Director Ömer Çelik, its former reporter Metin Yoksu, Yolculuk Newspaper's Chief Editor Eray Sargın and Etkin News Agency's Managing Editor Derya Okatan were detained for reporting on the emails of Berat Albayrak, the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, that were shared by RedHack.

Held in detention for 24 days, Öğreten, Kanaat and Çelik were arrested; the other journalists were released on January 17, 2017.

Çelik, Okatan, Yoksu and Sargın were charged with "propagandizing for an organization", "blocking, damaging information system, destroying or changing data", while Kanaat was charged with "membership of an organization" and Öğreten was charged with "committing crimes on behalf of the FETÖ and DHKP-C as a non-member."

Arrested as part of the same investigation, the files of Die Welt reporter Deniz Yücel, journalist Fatih Yağmur and one person coded as "unknown person" were separated from the file of the other defendants.

The indictment was prepared six month later and the first hearing was held on October 24, 2017. Ömer Çelik was released at the first hearing. At the second hearing of the trial held on December 6, 2017, Tunca Öğreten and Mahir Kanaat, arrested for 323 days, were released with an international travel ban and a judicial control measure of giving signatures twice a week

The individual applications of Öğreten and Kanaat to Turkey's Constitutional Court remained inconclusive. (HA/SD)