The first trial of journalists accused of taking part in or supporting last year’s coup attempt in Turkey opened on Monday in a crucial test for freedom of expression in the country.
Ahmet and Mehmet Altan have been held without trial since September, and face possible life sentences, along with fellow journalist Nazlı Ilıcak, for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government and acting on behalf of a terror organisation.
The accusations against them mirror those against dozens of journalists who oppose the government and who have been detained in the months since the attempted putsch in Turkey, which is now the world’s largest jailer of journalists.
“Today I stand before you … as someone whose thoughts are on trial,” Mehmet Altan said in his defence statement, distributed to media and monitors before the hearing. “This new period … has become a time marked by the silencing and punishing of all dissenting voices and individuals. I am one of those whose punishment is wanted.”
Tens of thousands of people have been dismissed from their jobs or arrested since the coup in a purge that has gone beyond the alleged plotters to encompass a broad range of dissidents. Many, including senior judges and prosecutors, have been held without charges since last July.
The accusations against Ilıcak and the Altan brothers are based partly on their columns and television appearances, alleged contact with members of the network of Fethullah Gülen, an exiled preacher whose movement is widely believed in Turkey to have orchestrated the coup attempt, and “subliminal messaging” in their work that supposedly calls for the overthrow of the government.
“Because of such nonsense we have been languishing in jail for months,” Ahmet Altan’s defence statement said. “Worse yet, they also want to imprison us for life.”
Observers see the trial as a crucial test not only of press freedom but the independence of the judiciary and whether an institution that has had a quarter of its members purged under emergency law can still hold a fair trial.
“They are being charged with the same accusations as those who picked up rifles and committed violence on the night of the coup,” said Tobias Garnett, a lawyer with P24, an organisation that supports independent journalism and represents a number of journalists, including the Altan brothers. “The charges are absurd, but the question is, are they going to get a fair trial?
“This is as much a test of judicial independence as of press freedom.”
The trial’s opening was delayed to the afternoon, with a few dozen observers, journalists and members of the public waiting in the wings of the Çağlayan courthouse in the commercial Şişli district of Istanbul. The British consul general, members of the American and British bar associations, representatives of several European consulates and human rights and press freedom watchdogs were present.
The three journalists are being tried with others who worked for Gülen-affiliated media organisations. Many of the defendants in the case have fled the country and are being tried in absentia, though the cases against them are markedly different from those of the Altan brothers and Ilıcak.
Mehmet Altan and Ilıcak arrived in the courtroom with three other defendants in an emotional scene that elicited tearful reactions from family members who attended the hearing. Ahmet Altan was expected to speak by video link from prison. The hearing, which lasted into the evening, was expected to include a summary of the indictment by the judge, and the defence statements by the Altan brothers and Ilıcak.
