An İstanbul court on Wednesday ruled for the acquittal of all 13 suspects in the Oda TV case who were standing trial on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
The 13 suspects included writers and journalists Ahmet Şık, Yalçın Küçük and Nedim Şener as well as former police chief Hanefi Avcı.
The İstanbul 18th High Criminal Court ruled for the acquittal of the suspects due to the lack of concrete evidence against them.
The suspects were charged with membership in the illegal Ergenekon organization, creating an environment of chaos, inciting people to hostility and hatred, obtaining and revealing secret documents, attempting to influence a fair trial and illegally recording personal data.
Journalist Şık had been tried without arrest in the Oda TV case, but he is in jail in a separate case, having been arrested on Dec. 30, 2016 on charges of disseminating the propaganda of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gülen movement, which is called a terror organization by the Turkish government despite the lack of any evidence to this effect.
Journalists Şık and Şener were jailed as part of the Oda TV case in 2011 and spent around a year in pre-trial detention.