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PROMINENT TURKISH JOURNALISTS FREED, BUT THEIR TRIAL CONTINUES
Times of Malta
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120313/world/Prominent-Turkish-journalists-freed-but-their-trial-continues.410911
March 13 2012
An Istanbul court yesterday ordered two prominent journalists to be
freed, a year after their arrest for allegedly plotting against the
Islamist-rooted Turkish government, TV reports said.
Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik as well as a dozen other suspects have been
charged with abetting a purported secularist network, named Ergenekon,
that allegedly plotted assassinations and bombings to destabilise
the governnment and prompt a military coup.
Mr Sener received the International Press Institute's World Press
Freedom Hero award in 2010 for a book that blamed the security forces
for the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
Two other detainees were also released, NTV and CNN-Turk television
networks said.
They will now be able to follow upcoming hearings of their trial as
free men. The journalists face prison terms of up to 15 years if found
guilty. Critics charge that the investigation, launched in 2007, has
degenerated into a campaign to bully critical media and the opposition.
A government spokesman hailed the court decision. "We cannot but
rejoice at their release," said Bulent Arinc, quoted by the Anatolia
news agency.
"The fact that our friends, who are also journalists, spent 375 days,
or more than a year, in preventive detetion is reason for sadness."
Times of Malta
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120313/world/Prominent-Turkish-journalists-freed-but-their-trial-continues.410911
March 13 2012
An Istanbul court yesterday ordered two prominent journalists to be
freed, a year after their arrest for allegedly plotting against the
Islamist-rooted Turkish government, TV reports said.
Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik as well as a dozen other suspects have been
charged with abetting a purported secularist network, named Ergenekon,
that allegedly plotted assassinations and bombings to destabilise
the governnment and prompt a military coup.
Mr Sener received the International Press Institute's World Press
Freedom Hero award in 2010 for a book that blamed the security forces
for the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
Two other detainees were also released, NTV and CNN-Turk television
networks said.
They will now be able to follow upcoming hearings of their trial as
free men. The journalists face prison terms of up to 15 years if found
guilty. Critics charge that the investigation, launched in 2007, has
degenerated into a campaign to bully critical media and the opposition.
A government spokesman hailed the court decision. "We cannot but
rejoice at their release," said Bulent Arinc, quoted by the Anatolia
news agency.
"The fact that our friends, who are also journalists, spent 375 days,
or more than a year, in preventive detetion is reason for sadness."