Court rules for Cumhuriyet journalists Dündar, Gül to be tried in secret

An Istanbul court ruled on March 25 for the whole trial to be held in secret, in the controversial case of Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül.

The hearing was adjourned until April 1, as MPs in attendance refused to leave the courtroom after their request to follow the hearings was rejected by the judges. 

The court also decided to file a criminal complaint against the lawmakers who refused to leave the courtroom for obstructing justice.

Earlier, it also accepted requests from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the National Intelligence Agency (M?T) to be included as plaintiffs in the case.

A large group of supporters, including deputies from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), journalists and representatives of trade bodies, had accompanied Dündar and Gül as they entered Istanbul's Ça?layan courthouse.

"We came here today to defend journalism. We gathered here before and said the same thing. We said we would defend the people's right to access information. We defended that and we were arrested. Then we were given pre-trial release following a Constitutional Court ruling," Dündar said, speaking in front of the courthouse.

"We are stuck between two palaces. One of them is the unregistered palace, the other one is the court palace. The court's palace had set us free, obeying the Constitutional Court's decision. But the resident of the unregistered palace is trying everything to have as arrested again," he had said ahead of the trial, in an apparent reference to President Erdo?an's controversial presidential palace in Ankara. 

Gül also vowed to "continue doing journalism."

"Journalism is not a crime...