Önder Çelik

The sixth hearing of the trial of 17 executives and journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet, including the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Şık, Kadri Gürsel and cartoonist Musa Kart, will take place today in a hearing room across Istanbul's Silivri Prison. 

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has accused the prosecutors in the daily Cumhuriyet case of being members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Seven journalists and executives from daily Cumhuriyet were released from Istanbul’s Silivri prison late on July 28 after a local court ordered their release in the case which they had been tried on terror charges.

Seven journalists and executives from daily Cumhuriyet were released from Istanbul's Silivri prison late on July 28 after a local court ordered their release in the case which they had been tried on terror charges.

An Istanbul court on July 28 ordered the release of seven daily Cumhuriyet journalists, executives but ruled for the continuation of arrest for another five who are being accused on charges of "supporting terror." 

The released journalists and executives were cartoonist Musa Kart, Bülent Utku, Turan Günay, Önder Çelik, Kemal Güngör, Hakan Karasinir and Güray Öz.

The last day of the first hearings in the case of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives began on July 28, as a verdict is expected to be announced in the evening hours. 

All 17 journalists and executives from the daily have testified over the past five days.

The trial of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives entered its fourth day on July 27. 

Journalist Hikmet Çetinkaya was the first to testify in the fourth hearing.
The charges directed at the Cumhuriyet journalists include "membership of an armed terrorist organization" and "helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member of it."

The trial of seventeen executives and journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet, including the newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Şık Kadri Gürsel and cartoonist Musa Kart, went on to its second day on July 25.

Eleven of the 17, including Gürsel, Sabuncu, Kart and Şık, are held in custody, while the others have already been freed.

Our colleague Utku Çakırözer, one of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) parliamentarians who used to be a journalist, has visited some journalists currently jailed in Silivri prison during Eid el-Fitr.

A trial against daily Cumhuriyet columnists and executives will begin on July 24, Press Freedom Day in Turkey, after an Istanbul court accepted an indictment into a total of 19 suspects on April 18, nearly five months after an investigation was launched.