MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Süleyman Sargın from Zaman newspaper – The trial of “membership in a terrorist organization”
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Süleyman Sargın
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2017
LAST UPDATED
07/04/2019
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Print Media
Newspaper
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Criminal Courts
Approval of the indictment and initiating the prosecution
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 314/2

Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court convicted the defendants Hakan Taşdelen, Cihan Media deputy chairman Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş and Cihan News Agency’s general manager Faruk Akkan for being a member of a terrorist organization, in April 2018. The court sentenced Osman Nuri Arslan, Ahmet İrem and Yüksel Durgut to 7 years and 6 months each.

Murat Avcıoğlu was sentenced to 3 years and 1 month and 15 days of imprisonment on charges of aiding a terrorist organization without being its member. The defendants Zafer Özsoy, Hüseyin Belli, Onur Kutlu, İsmail Küçük and Ali Hüseyin Çelebi were acquitted. Ozsoy who was acquitted was also released.

The files of defendants Osman Nuri Öztürk, Şeref Yılmaz and Süleyman Sargın were separated from the case file. The Court acquitted all defendants on the charges of “attempting to abolish the constitutional order”, “attempting to eliminate the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Government of the Republic of Turkey “.