EYLEM SONBAHAR
The trial of exiled journalist Can Dündar, who is being prosecuted for allegedly insulting a public official over an article published during a solidarity campaign with the now-shuttered Özgür Gündem newspaper, has been postponed to December 18.
Dündar is on trial at Istanbul’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance for “insulting a public official” in connection with a June 22, 2016 news article titled “The most useful judge of the palace regime”, which appeared in Özgür Gündem during a campaign known as the "Editor-in-Chief on Watch." The article led to a complaint by Bekir Altun, who at the time served as a judge at the Istanbul 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace.
Neither Dündar nor the complainant appeared at the hearing, held Tuesday. The prosecutor requested that procedural deficiencies in the case be addressed. The court ruled to wait for the execution of the outstanding arrest warrant against Dündar and rescheduled the hearing for 9:40 a.m. on December 18.
The “Editor-in-Chief on Watch” campaign was launched in 2016 as an act of solidarity with Özgür Gündem, a pro-Kurdish newspaper that was later shut down by emergency decree (KHK) following the failed July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. As part of the campaign, journalists and public figures temporarily assumed symbolic editorial leadership roles at the paper in protest of government pressure on the media.
Dündar, who has lived in exile in Germany since 2016, participated in the campaign, along with Özgür Gündem’s then-responsible managing editor İnan Kızılkaya. In the 25th hearing of the case, the court convicted Kızılkaya of insulting a public official and sentenced him to a judicial fine of 7,080 Turkish lira.
However, because the arrest warrant against Dündar has not been executed for an extended period, the court previously decided to sever his file from the main case, citing prolonged delay in the proceedings. The trial now continues under a separate case file.
