Dündar, Gül not arrested in second hearing, trial again postponed

Turkish journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül appeared in Istanbul's Ça?layan courthouse for the second hearing of their controversial case on April 1, with the court again ruling not to arrest them for the duration of the trial. 

The second hearing was closed to the public after an earlier ruling, with Dündar and Gül facing life in jail on "espionage" charges for reporting on Turkish intelligence trucks allegedly transporting weapons to Syrian rebel groups in November 2014. 

The court also postponed the hearing to April 22.

Dündar said the prosecutor did not demand their arrest, but added that he thought the prosecutor would request to join the cases.

Speaking to reporters before the hearing, Dündar said the plaintiffs and the defendants were mixed up in the trial. "There is a mistake with the seating arrangement," said Dündar, Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief. "We should have been on the questioning side in this arrangement of journalists versus the president and the undersecretary of M?T [National Intelligence Organization] because, at the heart of it, the case is an international crime," he said. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and M?T recently joined the proceedings as complainants amid strong domestic and international criticism.

Dündar also denied the portrayal of the trial as an espionage case and stressed that the real target was their journalistic activities. 

"What is on trial here is journalism. What is on trial are our right to information and the people's right to learn. Whereas on the opposing side, there is a crime being hidden from people," he said. 

Gül, Cumhuriyet's Ankara bureau chief, reiterated Dündar's remarks, stating his expectation that the court would dismiss the case on...