Elif Akgül, İstanbul – Six journalists appeared before İstanbul 29. High Criminal Court in the so-called RedHack Trial today. Eray Sargın, Derya Okatan and Mahir Kanaat were present in the courtroom, while Metin Yoksu and Ömer Çelik were absent. Representatives of the Media and Law Studies Association, Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu and other civic society representatives were present to monitor the proceedings.
The main focus of the hearing was the detention of the journalists and the seizure of their digital materials. Lawyers for Kanaat noted that her daughter’s iPad, which Kanaat’s daughter used to play games, had been seized. Okatan explained that she had been taken into custody while at her aunt’s house to mourn the death of Okatan’s cousin, and remarked that a computer which was seized “… did not belong to me, it belonged to my niece. The only photos of her are in that computer."
Tolgay Güvercin, a lawyer for the defense, argued that the journalists were no longer being held in pre-trial detention as a precaution but rather as a punishment. Güvercin requested their immediate release.
After a short recess the court chose to reject the requests of the defendants for their release and the return of their seized materials. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Metin Yoksu and Ömer Çelik, ordering their attendance at the next hearing which is scheduled for January 8 2019.
Updated: December 5 2018
