Bloomberg reporters and other journalists were among 38 defendants who were charged with “violating the Capital Market Law”

The trial of Bloomberg reporters Kerim Karakaya and Fercan Yalınkılıç over a news article published in August 2018 about Turkey’s currency crisis at the time was concluded in İstanbul. Karakaya and Yalınkılıç were on trial along with 36 social media users who commented on or shared the report on social media, including journalists Merdan Yanardağ, Sedef Kabaş, Mustafa Sönmez and Orhan Kalkan. In its decision, the court ruled to acquit all defendants on the grounds that the legal elements of the alleged crime did not exist.

The defendants were charged with “violating the Capital Market Law” in the case, which got underway in September 2019.

At the hearing held on 27 April 2022 at the İstanbul 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance, the trial prosecutor submitted their final opinion on the case, asking the court to acquit all defendants on the grounds that the elements of the crime did not exist.

Final hearing adjourned for two days

P24 monitored the hearing, during which the lawyers for the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) and the Capital Markets Board asked the court for additional time to prepare their statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. Accepting the requests for continuance, the court adjourned the trial until 29 April 2022.

At the final hearing held on 29 April 2022, some of the defendants and lawyers representing defendants were in attendance. The lawyers representing the BDDK and the SPK were also present in the courtroom.

Lawyer Deniz Kubat, representing the BDDK, argued that Karakaya and Yalınkılıç had damaged the reputation of the BDDK, and asked the court to sentence them accordingly. Ömer Bayraktar, Karakaya and Yalınkılıç’s lawyer, recalled that expert opinions on the case concluded that the elements pertaining to the crimes of “market fraud” or “damaging the reputation” did not exist, and thus, requested that Karakaya and Yalınkılıç be acquitted.

Announcing its decision at the end of the hearing, the court ruled to acquit all defendants on the grounds that the elements of the imputed crime did not exist.