The new Turkey
Murat Güreş.
Journalist working for online news sites

19-Jan-2020

19 November 2019:

Murat Güreş’s trial adjourned until February 

The trial of journalist Murat Güreş on the charge of “violating the confidentiality of an investigation” resumed on 19 November 2019 at the Gaziantep 9th Criminal Court of First Instance. Lawyers, who had submitted letters of excuse, were not present at the hearing. The court adjourned the trial until 20 February 2020.

Güreş and his co-defendant Furkan Gökşen, the chief editor of the local online gazette Detail Haber, were jailed pending trial on 2 August 2017 for reporting on the contents of a statement an influential local businessperson gave to a prosecutor. After spending 13 days in detention on remand as part of the case, Güreş and Gökşen were freed under judicial control measures on 15 August 2017.

19 February 2019:

Trial into journalist Murat Güreş adjourned

 The trial in which Gaziantep-based journalists Murat Güreş, Furkan Gökşen and Metin Aybey stand accused of “violating the confidentiality of an investigation” resumed on 19 February.

The Gaziantep 9th Criminal Court of First Instance adjourned the trial until 20 June.

22 December 2018:

Court temporarily suspends parental rights of Turkish journalist for insulting police
A Turkish court handed a journalist one year two month sentence for insulting the police and suspended his parental rights until he serves his term, Birgün newspaper reported .

Murat Güreş, a journalist working for online news sites in the southern province of Gaziantep, was charged with insulting the Turkish police in some posts he shared on social media.

Güreş defended himself saying he did not mean any insult and only criticised the police.

The court sentenced Güreş to one year two month in prison, saying the journalist committed the crime in public. It also temporarily suspended the journalist’s parental rights until he serves his term in prison. Güreş, who has two children, said he would appeal the court’s ruling. 

15 August 2017:

Two Gaziantep journalists released

Two local Gaziantep journalists who were sent to prison on August 2 for “violating a confidentiality order” imposed on the case of a businessman who was imprisoned in an investigation into the Fethullah Gülen network were released on August 15.

Murat Güreş and Furkan Gökşen were arrested for publishing testimony from the businessman. They were released following objections filed by their lawyers to their arrest ruling. With the recent ByLock arrests and the release of the two local journalists, the number of journalists imprisoned in Turkey has reached 171.

31 July 2017:

Court jails two journalists pending trial
A court in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep on August 2 ordered Furkan Gökşen, a reporter for the local newspaper Detay Haber, and Murat Güreş, a columnist for the local newspaper Ayıntap, jailed pending trial on charges of "violating the secrecy of an investigation," the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel reported. The court ordered Metin Aybey, a columnist for the local newspaper Doğuş, released on probation, pending trial on the same charge. Kadir Akkurt, whom police also arrested on August 2 on the same charge, was released after police questioning, Evrensel reported.

Prosecutors allege that the journalists published statements of a suspect being investigated for being a follower of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the government blames for masterminding a failed military coup in July 2016.