On 19 December 2024, Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were murdered in a targeted drone attack by the Turkish state south of Kobanê. Both had been working for the Kurdish media for many years and were most recently reporting from the Euphrates front about the attacks by the Turkish army and the jihadist alliance SNA on the self-governing Rojava.
Two days later, on 21 December, press associations based in Turkey wanted to make a public statement in Istanbul against the murder of their colleagues. However, the police forcibly prevented the gathering and detained almost 60 people. One day later, a court of emergency ordered the imprisonment of seven journalists and two local politicians from the DEM Party.
Journalists Gülistan Dursun, Hayri Tunç, Yeni Yaşam newspaper reporter Enes Sezgin, Osman Akın, Can Papila, Etkin News Agency (ETHA) reporter Pınar Gayıp, and Mücadele Birliği journalist Serpil Ünal, and two politicians, Hacı Ugiş and İmam Şenol, were remanded in custody on charges of “making propaganda for an illegal organization”, “participating in an unlawful march and refusing to disperse despite warnings,” and “violating the law on meetings and demonstrations”.
The hearing of the nine defendants was held at the 24th Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul on Tuesday. The journalists and politicians were represented by their lawyers who presented their defense at the hearing.
After the defense, the court announced its decision, acquitting the journalists and politicians separately on the grounds that their action did not constitute a crime.
Source: ANF News
