Esra Mungan

Turkey on Dec. 5 began the trial of a group of academics charged with terror offences for signing a petition calling for peace in the country’s southeast. 

An Istanbul court ordered the release of four Turkish academics on April 22 on the first hearing of a trial opened against them for making  "terrorist propaganda" when they read out a joint petition in January signed by over 1000 colleagues calling on the government to end the security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

A prosecutor in a case into four academics who were accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda" in signing a peace petition has asked for their release during a hearing on April 23.