An İstanbul court on Monday ruled for arrest of academic and human rights activist Şebnem Korur Fincancı, writer and journalist Ahmet Nesin and journalist Erol Önderoğlu on charges of “spreading terrorism propaganda.”
Fincancı is a revered doctor of forensic medicine and the 2014 winner of the International Hrant Dink award, which is delivered in honor of slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Dink. She is also a founding member of Turkish Human Rights Foundation, the Association of Forensic Medicine Experts and the Association of Criminal Law Studies in Turkey.
Fincancı, Nesin and Önderoğlu have been serving as temporary editor-in-chief for the Özgür Gündem daily, which has been under government crackdown recently. Press freedom activists launched a campaign in solidarity with the daily, where prominent journalists and academics serve as “editor-in-chief on duty” for the newspaper.
Along with Fincancı, Nesin and Önderoğlu, Yıldırım Türker, Kemal Can, Cengiz Baysoy, İhsan Eliaçık, Beyza Üstün have been prosecuted for taking part in the campaign. They previously gave their testimony to a court in the İstanbul Çağlayan courthouse, as well as the daily’s Managing Editor İnan Kızılkaya.