The new Turkey |
|---|
05-Apr-2019 9:36 |
4 March 2019: Alayumat and Akman were working for the Dicle News Agency (dihaber), which was shut down upon the No. 675 Statutory Decree in October 2016. Speaking to the daily Evrensel, Alayumat said that they were on trial for "acquiring the state's information that should stay confidential for the purposes of military or political espionage" and "membership of a terrorist organization" and that the basis of the allegations against them were their acts of journalism. After being arrested for 10 months because of the photographs he shot, Alayumat was released in May 2018. Complaint for shooting grain silosIn its opinion as to the accusations, the Prosecutor's Office requested Nuri Akman's acquittal from all charges. For Alayumat, it requested acquittal from espionage and a prison sentence from membership of a terrorist organization. The Prosecutor's Office also filed a complaint against Akman because of his social media posts and Alayumat because he shot the photographs of grain silos, which it claimed was a military zone. The court acquitted both two journalists from all charges. What happened?Alayumat and Akman were taken into custody over "reasonable suspicion" on July 13, 2017 in Turkey's southern province of Hatay that neighbors Syria. After being kept in detention for two weeks, Alayumat was arrested on July 27 and Akman was released on probation pending trial by the Hatay 2nd Heavy Penal Court. In the bill of indictment against the two journalists, the news articles they wrote, the photographs they shot, the interviews they made, the phone calls they made with their colleagues were also included. The indictment also mentioned that the two journalists' stories on the military mobilization on the border areas, ecology and prisons. (AÖ/VK) 19 October 2018:
None of the 54 have been convicted of terrorism, most have not been charged with a crime, but most have been previously reported to be under investigation in the scope of a sweeping purge of suspected Gülenists that intensified after a July 15, 2016, failed military coup that the government blamed on the Hizmet movement, as its sympathizers call it. Of the 54, only Nuriye Akman and Lale Kemal were arrested, though subsequently released pending the conclusion of their trial. 13 October 2016: Lale Kemal, a columnist who wrote for the dailies Taraf and Zaman, and Nuriye Akman, a columnist for Zaman, were released from prison yesterday on appeal, the English-language news blog Turkish Minute reported. The two columnists, who have been detained since July 30, were among the more than 100 journalists and media workers arrested after the failed attempted coup on July 15. Their papers were shuttered on July 27 for their alleged links to the Hizmet movement. Kemal and Akman were accused of of being members of the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure, or FETÖ/PDY, the name Turkish prosecutors use for the Hizmet movement, which the government accuses of being behind the coup plot. The investigation into the two journalists is still ongoing. 30 August 2016:
Akman's lawyer, Sidar Öztürk, told CPJ that the journalist's legal team did not know what charges Akman faces because the court had ordered the trial to be conducted in secret. DİHA today reported that Akman's reporting trip to the Syrian city of Kobane, and his posts to social media websites from conflict zone were introduced as evidence against the journalist in the initial investigation. Malatya's Second Court of Serious Crimes ordered the journalist released under judicial control, pending the conclusion of his trial. He is next scheduled to appear before the court on August 16. 3 February 2016: Akman doing journalism in Van went to Malatya Public Prosecution with his lawyer to bear testimony as his name was included in the investigation in which 14 students have been arrested. He was charged on ground of reports he made in Kobanê, photos he took and social media posts. Akman refuting the accusation against him has been referred to court after his testimony was taken. Arrest warrant has been issued on him by the court he was referred to. Akman arrested has been sent to Malatya E Type Prison. |
 |
Journalists Erdoğan Alayumat and Nuri Akman, who were charged with "membership of a terrorist organization" and "espionage" because of their news articles and photographs, were acquitted at the hearing that took place at the Hatay 2nd Heavy Penal Court on March 1.
Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporter, Nuri Akman has been arrested over “[illegal] organization membership” by the court he was referred to take his testimony within the scope of investigation launched into him.
