Turkish court sentences six journalists to life in prison

Six journalists, including two prominent brothers, have been sentenced to life in prison by a Turkish court on Friday for aiding plotters of a 2016 failed coup.

Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and journalist, and his brother Ahmet, also a journalist, were charged with giving coded messages on a television talk show a day before the abortive military putsch. Nazli Ilicak, another well known journalist, was also among the sentenced.

Since the failed coup in 2016, more than 50,000 people have been jailed and more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.
All six have denied the charges brought against them. 

Turkey‘s highest court, the constitutional court, had previously ruled for Mehmet Altan’s release, saying that his detention amounted to the violation of his rights. However, the penal court rejected that request and decided to keep him in jail as his trial continued.

Ahmet Altan was charged after he said on a programme: “Whatever the developments were that lead to military coups in Turkey, by making the same decisions, Erdogan is paving the same path”.

On the same programme, Mehmet Altan referred to “another structure” within the government that was closely watching the developments to “take its hand out of the bag”.

Prosecutors charged that the comments were coded messages to followers of the cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating the coup.

Reuters