Istanbul, January 23, 2025–The 25th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes came to a guilty verdict on Thursday in the retrial of five journalists arrested on terrorism charges in 2016, found guilty in 2018, and released on appeal in 2020. The court acquitted one other journalist.
The defendants were charged for alleged ties to the recently deceased exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkey’s government accused of maintaining a terrorist organization called FETÖ. Turkey has claimed that the failed 2016 military coup was organized by Gülen.
“Five Turkish journalists were once again tried because of alleged ties to the failed coup of 2016 without any credible evidence and found guilty again,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should not fight the appeals of those five journalists and stop using judicial measures to put pressure on the media, as such prolonged trials on baseless charges hurt Turkey’s press freedom record.”
The court found Yakup Çetin, a former reporter for the shuttered daily Yeni Hayat, guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and sentenced him to six years and three months, in line with the original 2018 sentencing.
Ahmet Memiş, former editor for news websites Haberdar and Rotahaber; Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, former reporter for the shuttered news magazine Aksiyon; Ünal Tanık, former Rotahaber editor; and Yetkin Yıldız, former editor for news website Aktif Haber; were found guilty of “knowingly and willingly aiding a [terrorist] organization” and sentenced to 25 months each. The court acquitted Ali Akkuş, former editor for the shuttered daily Zaman.
None of the defendants were rearrested pending appeal.
All six defendants pleaded not guilty and asked for acquittals due to a lack of evidence for terrorist activity. While the journalists were employed by pro-Gülen outlets in 2016, the court documents CPJ inspected showed that their reporting was used as evidence against them.
In 2018, all six journalists were found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and received sentences of up to seven years and six months.
CPJ’s email to the chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul for comment on the case did not receive a reply.