Cumhuriyet online chief sentenced to three years in prison in Istanbul
An Istanbul court has sentenced the online editor-in-chief of the government-critical newspaper Cumhuriyet to three years and one month in prison for «terrorist propaganda.».
Oguz Güven was found guilty of carrying out "terror propaganda" for the banned movement of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, reported Cumhuriyet on Tuesday. He is also said to have "legitimized" the methods of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
In Turkey, the Gülen movement is held responsible for the failed military coup in July 2016. Like the PKK guerrillas, it is listed as a terrorist organization. Güven was arrested in April for reporting the accidental death of a public prosecutor who had led the action against suspected Gülen members after the attempted coup.
Güven was released in May for the duration of the trial. He was facing ten years in prison. In Istanbul, other employees of Cumhuriyet were indicted on charges of "propaganda" and "supporting terrorist organizations", including the publisher, the editor-in-chief, an investigative reporter and several of the paper's columnists.
The long-established newspaper, which is one of the fiercest critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, rejects the accusations as absurd and accuses the judiciary of trying to silence one of the country's last independent voices. According to the press freedom platform P24, 155 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. (SDA)
