Turkey puts 31 staff members from pro-Gulen daily on trial
Thirty-one former employees of a now shuttered Turkish newspaper that had backed the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen go on trial charged with links to the failed 2016 coup.
Those on trial include writers and executives from the Zaman daily and its English-language sister publication Today’s Zaman, which were taken over by the state in March 2016 and shut down in July that year.
Staff members and supporters of Zaman newspaper shout slogans and hold placards reading “Free press can not be silenced” during a protest against a raid by counter-terror police in Istanbul on December 14, 2014 (photo credit: Ozan Kose / AFP)
Both publications were closely aligned with Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating the July 15, 2016, coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen has strongly denied the charge.
— AFP
