A high criminal court in İstanbul has ruled for the continuation of the arrest of journalist Mehmet Gündem, who was jailed on November 1, 2017, on charges of allegedly being a member of the faith-based civic Gulen movement which is labelled by the Turkish government as a terrorist organization on Thursday.
Gündem who appeared for the fourth time before judges told there was no evidence that supported the allegations against him in his case document.
Gündem once again repeated his early testimony that the claims in the indictment suggesting that he used the ByLock smart phone application, which Turkish authorities claim was the top communication tool among Gülen followers were baseless. Gündem said the mobile phone number cited in the indictment as using ByLock did not belong to him and he had been using the same mobile phone number since 1995.
Gündem also said he had an account at Bank Asya since 2001 and it was very part of flow of life.
In the wake of the controversial coup attempt in July 2016, having an account at Bank Asya was presented by prosecutors as evidence of membership in the Gülen movement.
While Gündem was testifying, the judge interrupted him to say “You repeat the same sentences in each hearing. Tell me if you have any demand from the court”.
“500 days are too long. My imprisonment has gone beyond being a measure and turned into a punishment. I leave it up to the discretion of you. My grandfather and father died when I was in jail. I could not join their funerals services.” the journalist told the court while asking for his release.
The court ruled for the continuation of the arrest of Gündem and set the date for the next hearing at May 8.
The indictment against the journalist seeks a prison sentence of between seven-and-a-half and 15 years on terror charges.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 211 journalists and media workers were in jail as of March 14, 2019, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 134 were under arrest pending trial while only 77 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 167 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
The government also closed down some 200 media outlets, including Kurdish news agencies and newspapers, after a controversial coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016.
The post Court rules for continuation of arrest of senior journalist Gündem appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/court-rules-for-continuation-of-arrest-of-senior-journalist-gundem/
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