Below is a schedule of trials in Turkey this week where people are accused of various charges for expressing their beliefs or working for newspapers:
29 January -- Hrant Dink murder trial
At 10.30 AM in the 14th High Criminal Court, at the Istanbul Courthouse, the trial regarding the assassination of journalist Hrant Dink continues. Eleven years after his murder, 85 suspects including high- profile government and state officials such as gendarmerie and police officers are on trial. Charges against them include neglect of duty, killing by purpose, founding a terrorist organization, being a member of terrorist organization and falsification or fabrication of official documents.
30 January -- Ahmet Şık defamation trial
Journalist Ahmet Şık, who is imprisoned as part of an investigation into the critical Cumhuriyet newspaper, will be on trial for his tweets on 30 January, in the Istanbul 17th Penal Court of First Instance on charges of “defaming state organs”. The tweets that are cited in this trial are also included as the prosecutor’s evidence in the Cumhuriyet trial.
30 and 31 January -- Academics for Peace
More than a thousand academics are accused of spreading terror propaganda for signing a petition calling for an end to military operations conducted by Turkey in the country’s predominantly Kurdish-populated provinces in late 2015 and early 2016, where allegedly many civilian casualties occurred. Several of them will be on trial this week:
On 30 January, give academics of Marmara University, three of Yildiz Technical University; four from Istanbul Technical University and one from Özyeğin University will be on trial on charges of “terror propaganda.”
Hearings will be held in the 32nd High Criminal Court at the Istanbul Courthouse.
On 31 January, three academics from Galatasaray University and six Istanbul University will be on trial in 33rd High Criminal Court in Istanbul Courthouse.
31 January - Taraf executives on trial
At 10 am in the 13th High Criminal Court in Istanbul, the case of journalists Ahmet Altan, Yasemin Çongar, Yıldıray Oğur, Mehmet Baransu and Tuncay Opçin will be heard. The defendants are accused of founding a crime organization, obtaining, damaging or destroying classified state documents and disclosing documents pertaining to security and political interest of the state. The charges concern Taraf newspaper’s publications from the year 2010.
31 January -- Professor İştar Gözaydın
On 31 January at 3.30 pm, professor of sociology İştar Gözaydın will be on trial on charges of “membership in a terrorist” organization.
31 January -- Büyükada Trial (also known as the Istanbul 10 trial)
On 31 January at 10.30 am in the Istanbul 35th High Criminal Court, 11 human rights activists will be tried on charges of terror-related crimes. The defendants are Amnesty International Turkey director İdil Eser, Amnesty International Turkey Chair Taner Kılıç -- who is still imprisoned in the trial -- German citizen and activist Peter Steudtner and educator Ali Gharavi (who has Swedish citizenship), Özlem Dalkıran, Nalan Erkem and İlknur Üstün from the Helsinki Citizens Assembly; Günal Kurşun and Veli Acu the from Human Rights Agenda Association.
