Serkan Erdoğan and Özkan Erdoğan, who had been imprisoned for seven months for working for the pro-Kurdish Özgürlükkçü Demokrasi newspaper, were released in their first court appearance after they were formally charged on 25 January.
The two Erdoğans -- who are no relation to each other although they were said to be flatmates -- were arrested by a court on July 29, 2017 on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.”
A prosecutor indicted them on the same charges, which were accepted by the Mersin 8th High Criminal Court. The first hearing was held on Thursday.
Özkan Erdoğan was brought to the courtroom while Serkan Erdoğan testified via the SEBGİS judicial video-conferencing system. Both of them testified in Kurdish, denying the accusations leveled against them. They said they didn’t distribute illegal propaganda material adding they were both journalists.
The court ruled to remove the arrest warrant for the two journalists and released them under judicial probation measures. The next hearing will be on May 22.
Their release brings the number of media employees and journalists in prison to 153 by our count. For a full list of imprisoned journalists in Turkey please visit bit.ly/MLSAlist. For a list of upcoming trials of journalists, academics and activists, visit bit.ly/MLSAtrials.
