February 05, 2016•Update: February 05, 2016
ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court accepted Friday an indictment calling for a sentence of life imprisonment for two Turkish journalists accused of espionage and trying to overthrow the government.
The 14th High Criminal Court said the detention of the two journalists would continue and unanimously ruled to hold the next stage of their trial on March 25.
The 473-page indictment prepared by Istanbul deputy public prosecutor Irfan Fidan in late January called for journalists Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, and the daily's Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul to be sentenced to 35 years in prison on charges of “aiding an armed terror organization”.
In the indictment, Dundar was accused of trying to legitimate the Dec. 17-25, 2013 coup attempts and cooperating with what the government designates as the Gulenist Terror Organization/Parallel State Structure or FETO/PDY through his articles.
The indictment also claimed that the suspects were writing fabricated articles, based on footage provided by FETO/PDY, despite the fact that there is no concrete information and documents, in order "to associate the Republic of Turkey and its government with terror".
The term ‘parallel state’ refers to U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen and his supporters who are accused of orchestrating a corruption probe that targeted high-ranking Turkish officials in December 2013.
Since then, hundreds of police officers have been detained and judicial members reshuffled on charges of eavesdropping on Turkey's top officials, disclosing highly sensitive information, forming and belonging to an organization to commit crime, violating privacy, illegally seizing personal information and forgery of official documents.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s Intelligence (MIT) under-secretariat were cited as the complainant in the indictment.
Dundar and Gul were arrested in late Nov. 2015.
Cumhuriyet, where the duo worked, had published photographs and video footage purportedly showing trucks belonging to the MIT, in May 2015.
In January 2014, several trucks were stopped by local gendarmerie in the southern Adana and Hatay provinces on the grounds that they were loaded with ammunition, despite a national security law forbidding such a search. The case saw the arrests of 26 soldiers.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said at the time that the trucks, which were reportedly carrying arms into northern Syria, were, in reality, conveying humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in the war-torn country.
Photographs published by the daily showed several vehicles filled with weapons and ammunition, stacked under cardboard boxes containing medication.
