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The Turkish Court of Cassation on Thursday (September 12th) broke the prison sentences imposed on former employees of the opposition daily Cumhuriyet. Their trial had become a symbol of attacks on press freedom in the country. This decision should result in the release of five journalists currently incarcerated.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
The Turkish Court of Cassation was supposed to rule on the case of six former journalists and leaders of the daily Cumhuriyet sentenced in April 2018, and again on appeal last February , to sentences of more than five years in prison for " assisting an organization". terrorist ".
Six other employees of the newspaper were deprived of this remedy, because their sentence was less than five years. Five of them, including the famous caricaturist Musa Kart, had been incarcerated.
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At first, the Court of Cassation invalidated the conviction of journalists who had turned to her. Then she felt that this decision should also apply to other collaborators. She therefore called for the release of Musa Kart and his former colleagues, pending a new trial.
The case, which became a symbol of attacks on freedom of the press in the country of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also highlighted one of the major dysfunctions of the Turkish judicial system. Or how, in the same trial, some convicted persons have an appeal to the Court of Cassation, while others must enter prison.
The Ministry of Justice is currently working on a reform supposed to put an end to this inconsistency.