Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül attend their second hearing on 22 April after attracting the wrath of President Erdoğan for lifting the lid on how the Presidential Palace and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) sent weapons to jihadists in Syria. Amid a ‘Festival of Justice outside the courthouse,’ the court refuses to […]
Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül attend their second hearing on 22 April after attracting the wrath of President Erdoğan for lifting the lid on how the Presidential Palace and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) sent weapons to jihadists in Syria. Amid a ‘Festival of Justice outside the courthouse,’ the court refuses to merge the case with one into the alleged Gülenist terror organization, instead adjourning proceedings until 6 May
An Istanbul court hearing a case into Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who are accused of lifting the lid on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) transfer of weapons to jihadists in Syria, has refused to merge the men’s case with a terror case against the Gülenist movement.
The case into the journalists, who published a story in Cumhuriyet last year detailing how Turkey’s Nationalist Intelligence Organization (MİT) was sending weapons to jihadists in trucks, was adjourned until 6 May by judges at the Çağlayan Courthouse during the 22 April hearing.
Speaking outside after the hearing, Dündar said the court had accepted that the pair were on trial for engaging in journalism. “The plan they concocted for us has failed,” he said.
The case has attracted domestic and international attention, especially after Erdoğan vowed to make the journalists pay for exposing his transfer of weapons to unknown groups in Syria.
Lawyers for the journalists demanded that the case be dropped, but the judges ordered an adjournment instead, even as it refused prosecutors’ requests to merge the case with the “Selam Tevhid” case against the alleged “Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization / Parallel State Structure” (FETÖ/PDY).
Throughout the 22 April hearing, members of political parties, civil society organizations and journalistic colleagues participated in a “Festival of Justice” outside the courthouse both for Dündar and Gül, as well as four Academics for Peace who were set to appear at a hearing in the same courthouse later in the day.
Sendika.Org
