URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY New information TUR 001 / 0120 / OBS 002.5 Sentencing / Judicial harassment Turkey April 20, 2022 The Observatory for the…
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court handed jail sentences on Monday to four employees of a now-defunct pro-Kurdish newspaper on terrorism charges, a lawyer in the case said, describing the verdict as politically motivated.
Ozgur Gundem newspaper was among more than 130 media outlets the government closed during a state of emergency it declared following a failed military coup in July 2016, in a crackdown whose scale alarmed Ankara’s Western allies and rights groups.
Some two dozen Ozgur Gundem staff were detained in 2016 as part of an investigation into their alleged links to Kurdish militants.
At the time, a court closed the newspaper on grounds of spreading propaganda of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union as well as by Turkey.