The court has ruled that journalist Sadık Topaloğlu should be brought before the court by force so that his defense could be heard, and adjourned the case until 4 February 2027

CANAN COŞKUN, ISTANBUL 

The 37th hearing in the trial in which 46 Kurdish journalists and media workers are charged with “membership in a terrorist organization,” “leading a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda” was held at the Istanbul 3rd High Criminal Court on 24 September 2026.

At the hearing, which was monitored by P24, the defendant Mehmet Savaş and his lawyer Fırat Kesen were present, along with Yıldız İmrek and Hakan Bozyurt, lawyers representing other defendants.

Mehmet Savaş, one of the defendants in the case—which was transferred from the Istanbul 25th High Criminal Court and merged with the KCK Press case—stated in his defense, “I am not a member of any organization. I have not been involved in any action. I do not accept the charges. I request my acquittal.”

Savaş’s lawyer, Fırat Kesen, also stated that he concurred with his client’s defense and requested an acquittal. The lawyers for the other defendants, however, requested that the deficiencies in the case file be rectified.

The court ruled that the execution of the arrest warrant against the defendant İsmet Kayhan should be suspended pending his appearance in court or his being brought before the court via the judicial videoconferencing system (SEGBİS) for the purpose of taking his defense statement. 

The court also ruled that a warrant for the compulsory appearance of the defendant, journalist Sadık Topaloğlu, should be issued for the purpose of taking his defense statement, and adjourned the case until 4 February 2027.

Background of the case

In a raid carried out in December 2011 against Kurdish media outlets such as the Dicle News Agency, Özgür Gündem, Azadiya Welat, Demokratik Modernite and Fırat Dağıtım, 46 journalists were detained and 32 of them were sent to pre-trial detention.

The indictment in the “KCK Press” case, in which journalists and media workers were charged with “membership in a terrorist organization” and “leading a terrorist organization,” was finalized on 27 April 2012. In the indictment filed by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office, journalism was defined as an “criminal activity.” The journalists’ interviews, press statements and conversations with news sources were included in the indictment as grounds for the charges. Of the 32 detainees, 17 were released gradually during the first two years of the trial, whilst the remaining detainees were only released after the Specially Authorized Courts were abolished.

The first hearing in the case was held at the 15th Specially Authorized High Criminal Court on 10 September 2012. The trial, which had been conducted by the 15th Specially Authorized High Criminal Court until 3 March 2014, began to be heard at the  Istanbul 3rd High Criminal Court following the abolition of the Specially Authorized Courts.

Following an application made to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2014 in connection with the case, the Ministry of Justice finally submitted a response to the ECtHR addressing the allegations years later. The response merely reiterated the points set out in the indictment.

Following the closure of the Specially Authorized Courts, a number of developments had taken place that affected this case. Claims had emerged that the provision in Law No. 6526, which regulated the closure of the Specially Authorized Courts – stating that “cases shall be transferred to the competent and authorized courts to continue proceedings from the stage following the entry into force of the law” – was contrary to the Constitution. The court hearing the KCK Press case decided to refer the case files to the Constitutional Court. In its hearings dated 25 December 2014, 14 January 2015 and 17 December 2014, the Constitutional Court rejected the applications relating to the KESK case and the KCK Press case on the grounds that they were clearly unfounded or did not comply with the proper procedure.