The court has ruled that probation period of the deferment of the sentence that had begun with the previous verdict had expired

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL

The fourth hearing in the retrial of the Özgür Gündem newspaper Managing Editor İnan Kızılkaya and İhsan Çaralan, who acted as the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief for a day in a solidarity campaign, on the charge of “insulting the president” over a news item was held at the İstanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance on 22 November 2024. Özgür Gündem was shut down by statutory decree. 

Lawyers for the parties were present at the hearing, which P24 monitored. Çaralan and Kızılkaya did not attend the hearing.

The prosecutor repeated their final opinion on the case and requested sentencing for Çaralan and Kızılkaya. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s lawyer Melik Tüfenkci requested sentencing for both journalists in line with the indictment.

Kızılkaya’s lawyer Özcan Kılıç and Çaralan’s lawyer Devrim Avcı requested the acquittal of their clients as per the Constitutional Court judgment, which found a violation with the deferment of the sentence practice. 

The court ruled to dismiss the case against journalists İnan Kızılkaya and İhsan Çaralan on the grounds that probation period of the deferment of the sentence that had begun with the previous verdict had expired.