A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced 14 staff of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper to prison on terrorism charges and acquitted three, one of their lawyers said, in a case that has sparked global outrage over press freedom under Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish court sentences more than dozen Cumhuriyet staff to prison on terrorism charges
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:The court handed down sentences ranging from 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years to the Cumhuriyet staff, lawyer Ozden Ozdemir told Reuters. Another defendant in the case, who was not employed by the paper and had been charged for his activities on Twitter, got the stiffest sentence, 10 years, Ozdemir said.
Ahmet Sik, a well-known journalist and author, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years, the harshest penalty among the staff.
The court also ruled the case against the prominent journalist Can Dundar, previously the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, would continue separately, court records showed.
The staff of the newspaper - long seen as a thorn in Erdogan’s side and one of the few remaining voices critical of the government - were charged with supporting the network of Fethullah Gulen, the Muslim cleric Ankara holds responsible for a failed 2016 coup attempt. They have denied the charges.