The new Turkey
Erdoğan Alayumat
Internet Reporter, Photographer

05-Apr-2019 9:36

4 March 2019:

Journalists Alayumat and Akman Acquitted
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.

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 silos

In 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:

“Espionage” case against Alayumat and Akman adjourned 
 
The fourth hearing in the trial against former Dicle media news agency (Dihaber) reporters Erdoğan Alayumat and Nuri Akman on “espionage” and “terrorist group membership” charges took place on 19 October in Hatay.
 
Alayumat and Akman did not attend the hearing at the 2nd High Criminal Court of Hatay. The court ruled to adjourn the trial awaiting response from the Turkish General Staff and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) concerning a writ in which the court inquired about the photographs on which the charges against the journalists are based.

A court in Hatay on July 27, 2017, ordered Erdoğan Alayumat, from online newspaper Dihaber, jailed pending trial on charges of "obtaining secret information of the Republic of Turkey for the means of political and military espionage," his employer reported. Security forces detained Alayumat and his colleague, Nuri Akman, near the Syrian border in the southeastern province of Hatay on July 13, according to news reports. The court freed Akman pending trial.

Prosecutors accused the journalists of "being a member of a [terrorist] organization," "aiding and abetting a [terrorist] organization," "being engaged in militia and collaboration activities in the name of a [terrorist] organization," and “revealing the secrets of the Republic of Turkey.”

Both journalists denied the accusations and said they were just doing their jobs, according to reports. The court ordered Alayumat to be detained pending investigation into the one charge and dismissed the other accusations, according to the Dihaber report.

Tugay Bek, a lawyer for Alayumat, told CPJ in October 2017 that prison staff beat the journalist in Hatay's Tarsus Prison and then transferred him to Bafra Prison, about 736 kilometers away in the northern province of Samsun. Alayumat has hearing loss in his left ear since the beating, Bek said. The lawyer said prosecutors refused to accept a complaint that he filed about the treatment. Bek added, “His trial is in Hatay, he is in Bafra, hundreds of kilometers away.” The journalist’s family is allowed to visit him, and the journalist has said that conditions in the current prison are better.

As of late 2017, no court hearing had been scheduled.

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