Hikmet Aslan Çetinkaya

The last day of the first hearings in the case of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives began on July 28, as a verdict is expected to be announced in the evening hours. 

All 17 journalists and executives from the daily have testified over the past five days.

The trial of daily Cumhuriyet journalists and executives entered its fourth day on July 27. 

Journalist Hikmet Çetinkaya was the first to testify in the fourth hearing.
The charges directed at the Cumhuriyet journalists include "membership of an armed terrorist organization" and "helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member of it."

The trial of seventeen executives and journalists from the daily Cumhuriyet, including the newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, Ahmet Şık Kadri Gürsel and cartoonist Musa Kart, went on to its second day on July 25.

Eleven of the 17, including Gürsel, Sabuncu, Kart and Şık, are held in custody, while the others have already been freed.

A trial against daily Cumhuriyet columnists and executives will begin on July 24, Press Freedom Day in Turkey, after an Istanbul court accepted an indictment into a total of 19 suspects on April 18, nearly five months after an investigation was launched.

An Istanbul court on April 18 accepted the indictment into daily Cumhuriyet columnists and executives that was completed earlier this month, nearly five months after the investigation was launched, with the prosecutor seeking jail sentences for all 19 suspects, 12 of whom are in prison.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided to prioritize the case of the jailed journalists and executives of Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, stating that it will investigate the case "as soon as possible."

Previously, the court had made the same decision about jailed Turkish journalists Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Atilla Taş and Murat Aksoy.

The indictment into daily Cumhuriyet columnists and executives was completed on April 4, nearly five months after the investigation was launched, with the prosecutor seeking jail sentences for all 19 suspects.
 
The former editor-in-chief of the daily, Can Dündar, was named as the prime suspect in the indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.