Today a hearing was held for Özgür Gündem Co-editor Eren Keskin and Editor in Chief Reyhan Çapan on trial due to a statutory decree (KHK). The journalists are on trial for the news story on Murat Sancak, the owner of Star newspaper, titled “National, local and pretty severe gambler” and published on October 16, 2015. The trial was held in the Istanbul Court of General Jurisdiction. Çapan and Keskin were not personally present in the hearing but their lawyer Özcan Kılıç was.

Lawyer Kılıç said the 4 month statute of limitations are up and thus the case needs to be dismissed on this grounds.

FINES AND MANDATORY PUBLICATIONS

The court issued 50.000 Liras each to Keskin and Çapan for “failing to publish a correction and a response in periodical publications”. The court also ruled that the correction will be published in two separate newspapers with daily sales over 100.000 in the form of advertorials.

NOT THE FIRST

Eren Keskin has been issued fines many times recently for “insulting the president” and “press crimes”. These fines totalled 105.000 Liras and Keskin said, “I don’t have that kind of money. This is not something that would happen in any democratic administration.”