Yarsuvat also said that one of the experts had proven in a Tweet he had posted that he was an admirer of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, adding: "This expert does not hold an academic title. FILE: The court in Silivri, outside Istanbul, handed out multiple sentences to 13 journalists and executives for "aiding and abetting terror organisations without being a member" but they remain free pending appeal. The court handed down the newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, reporter Ahmet Şık and the 77-year-old veteran columnist Aydın Engin 7 years and 6 months in prison each - the lengthiest prison sentences in the verdict. Let’s keep on doing journalism together.”

Gursel said the verdict was “a serious blow” to press freedom. Let’s keep on doing journalism together.”

The journalists were all charged with supporting, through their coverage, three organisations that Turkey views as terror groups – the Kurdistan Workers’ party, the ultra-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, and the Gulen movement blamed for the 2016 failed coup. Atalay said that they were taken “hostages” and the newspaper was demanded as a “ransom” but he added: “This newspaper cannot be bought with money … our colleagues will show how to do journalism.”

Accountant Emre Iper was also convicted on the separate charge of making terror propaganda and sentenced to three years and one month. The 27th High Criminal Court of Istanbul handed down prison sentences varying between 2 years and 6 months and 7 years and 6 months to 14 of the newspaper's columnists and executives standing trial in the case, while acquitting three of the suspects and separating the files of two journalists from the case. The judge ordered the release of Cumhuriyet chairman Akin Atalay who had been in jail for over 500 days despite his conviction, the correspondent said. Cumhuriyet headlined its report on the convictions with a warning to the Turkish authorities: “You will be shamed in front of history.”

Amnesty International’s Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum lambasted the trial during which the prosecution “failed to produce a shred of evidence” of any criminal wrongdoing.
A Turkish court convicts and sentences thirteen Cumhuriyet journalists accused of supporting terrorist organisations. The newspaper is critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.