NEWS CENTER - The indictment prepared by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against 22 people, 20 of whom are journalists, has been accepted.

 

As part of the investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 22 people, including 20 journalists, were detained in house raids on June 8, 2022. The journalists were transferred to the courthouse on June 16 after being detained in the police headquarters for 8 days. The journalists, who are JINNEWS Manager Safiye Alagaş, Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) Co-chairperson Serdar Altan, Mesopotamia Agency (MA) editor Aziz Oruç, Xwebûn Newspaper Editor-in-Chief Mehmet Ali Ertaş and Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Ömer Çelik, Mazlum Doğan Güler, İbrahim Koyuncu, Neşe Toprak, Elif Üngür, Abdurrahman Öncü, Suat Doğuhan, Remziye Temel, Ramazan Geciken, Lezgin Akdeniz and Mehmet Şahin, were arrested on charges of "being a member of a terrorist organization". Journalists Gülşen Koçuk, Esmer Tunç, Mehmet Yalçın and Kadir Bayram, and Feynaz Koçuk and İhsan Ergülen were released on condition of judicial control.

 

The Chief Public Prosecutor completed the investigation late last month and sent the indictment against the journalists to the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court. The court accepted the indictment prepared against the journalists.

 

CLAIM AFTER 10 MONTHS

 

Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment against imprisoned journalists Aziz Oruç, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Lezgin Akdeniz, Mazlum Güler, Mehmet Şahin, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Neşe Toprak, Ömer Çelik, Ramazan Geciken, Remziye Temel, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, and Abdurrahman Öncü, Esmer Tunç, İbrahim Bayram and Mehmet Yalçın, who were on trial pending trial. The indictment, consisting of 728 pages, was accepted by the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court, and the hearing was set for July 11.

 

The prosecutor's office separated the files of Gülşen Koçuk, Safiye Alagaş, Mehmet Servet Yigen, İhsan Ergünlü, Ayşe Güney, Ayşe Kara and Feynaz Koçuk, who were later added to the investigation.

 

In the indictment, the programs of the broadcasting policies of Kurdish televisions broadcasting abroad were listed and the broadcasting of journalists' programs and news on these televisions was evaluated as "organizational ties". It was demanded that journalists Aziz Oruç, Elif Üngür, İbrahim Koyuncu, Lezgin Akdeniz, Mazlum Güler, Mehmet Şahin, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Neşe Toprak, Ömer Çelik, Ramazan Geciken, Remziye Temel, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Abdurrahman Öncü, Esmer Tunç, İbrahim Bayram and Mehmet Yalçın should be sentenced to 7 years, 6 months and 15 years in prison separately in the indictment which is claimed that journalists committed the crime of "being a member of a terrorist organization" by broadcasting news and programs on Kurdish television.