The court, which has ruled that the four-year ban on travelling abroad should continue, has referred the case to the public prosecutor’s office for the preparation of their final opinion. The trial has been adjourned until 16 February 

MİZGİN TABU, DİYARBAKIR

The 12th hearing in the trial of 19 journalists, who were imprisoned pending trial on 16 June 2022 as part of an investigation led by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda” was held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court on 10 November 2026.

At the hearing, which was monitored by P24, the journalists on trial, Ömer Çelik and Elif Üngür, were present along with their lawyers Resul Temur, Gurbet Gözde Engin and Serdar Çelebi. The Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association (DFG) also observed the hearing as an observer. 

Lawyer Resul Temur, recalling that international the travel ban on his clients had been in place for four years, requested that the ban be lifted. The prosecutor requested time to draft their final opinion on the case.

The court rejected the request to lift the travel ban and referred the case file to the public prosecutor’s office for the preparation of the final opinion on the case. 

The case was adjourned until 16 February 2027.

Background of the case

Some production companies in Diyarbakır were raided by the police on 8 June 2022 over claims that they were shooting programs and producing content for the Stêrk TV and Medya Haber TV channels, which broadcast abroad. Several journalists, whose homes and workplaces were also searched by the police, were detained as part of the investigation. The police took a month to search the premises of the production companies.

The police presented video cameras and news materials confiscated during the searches as “evidence of terrorist organization’s activity” and provided images of these to the press. Sixteen journalists were imprisoned pending trial on 16 June 2022.

The Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor’s Office filed a 728-page long indictment against the 18 journalists on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda.” At the end of the first hearing held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court on 11-12 July 2023, 16 Kurdish journalists and press workers were released with a ban on travelling abroad after 13 months in detention.

With the addition of four individuals to the case, the number of journalists on trial rose to 20. Later, journalist Mehmet Şahin's case was separated from the file at the sixth hearing and merged with another case file heard at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court. With this decision, the number of journalists on trial fell to 19.

The names of the journalists on trial are as follows: Abdurrahman Öncü, Aziz Oruç, Berivan Karatorak, Elif Zilan Üngür, Esmer Tunç, Kadir Bayram, Lezgîn Akdeniz, Mazlum Güler, Mehmet Yalçın, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Mehmet Servet Yiğen, Neşe Toprak Bayram, Ramazan Geciken, Remziye Andan, Rohat Bulut, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan, Ömer Çelik and İbrahim Koyuncu.