Türkiye tries 17 employees of same newspaper office

A court in Istanbul (Türkiye) on July 24 tried 17 people, including the executive director, reporters and artists working for the daily Cumhuriyet on suspicion of having ties to terrorist groups.

The defendants, Cumhuriyet daily CEO Akin Atalay and editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, were accused of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, a network of supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for a failed military coup in July 2016.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Source: EPA/VNA)

Prosecutors said 11 of the defendants were arrested more than eight months ago, while the remaining six defendants, although free, remain under legal supervision.

The trial is expected to last four days and if convicted, the defendants will face sentences ranging from 7.5 to 43 years in prison.

To date, in addition to dismissing 150,000 state officials on charges of being linked to terrorist organizations, Turkish authorities have also arrested about 50,000 people suspected of being linked to the network supporting cleric Fethullah Gulen.

According to Reuters, human rights groups and the European Union (EU) say Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has used the crackdown to suppress opposition forces in the country, an accusation Ankara has always denied./.

According to Vietnamplus