Prosecutor also requested the court to separate the file of former editor Mehmet Özdemir for not having attended the trial

CANSU PİŞKİN, İSTANBUL

The sixth hearing in the retrial of four former columnists of the now-defunct Zaman newspaper and a news editor was held on 7 April 2022 at the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court.

Columnists Ali Bulaç, Ahmet Turan Alkan, Mümtazer Türköne and Şahin Alpay and news editor Mehmet Özdemir have been on retrial since April 2021, as original verdicts in their trial on terrorism charges were overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeals in September 2020.

The prosecutor submitted his final opinion on the case to the court at Thursday’s hearing, which was monitored by P24. Bulaç, Alpay and Türköne were present at the courtroom. In the final opinion, the prosecutor submitted that the four columnists should be convicted of “aiding the terrorist organization FETÖ/PDY without being a part of its hierarchical structure,” in line with the Supreme Court of Appeals’ 2020 judgment. He also asked the court to separate the file of editor Özdemir, who has not attended any of the court hearings despite a warrant of arrest issued against him.

Lawyers for the journalists requested time in order to prepare their defense statements in response to the prosecutor’s final opinion. Accepting the request, the court adjourned the trial until 28 June 2022.

Alpay, Bulaç, Türköne and Alkan were given lengthy prison terms at the end of their original trial in 2018 on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization.” Özdemir, on the other hand, was acquitted of all charges, along with four other former columnists of the newspaper. The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Alpay, Bulaç and Türköne, saying they should have been charged with “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.” The supreme court also overturned the acquittal of Özdemir, saying there was not sufficient ground for acquittal.

The supreme court upheld the conviction of Ahmet Turan Alkan, along with those of columnist Mustafa Ünal and editor İbrahim Karayeğen, making them final. Acquittal decisions of four other columnists, Lale Sarıibrahimoğlu, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Nuriye Akman and İhsan Dağı, were also upheld.

But the Supreme Court of Appeals later reversed its decision upholding the conviction of Ahmet Turan Alkan and ruled in March 2021 that he should also face retrial on the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization without being its member.”