The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has decided to examine on a priority basis applications filed by jailed journalists and executives from the Cumhuriyet daily, Cumhuriyet reported on Thursday.
Ten journalists and executives from the Cumhuriyet daily, including its Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, were arrested by the İstanbul 9th Penal Court of Peace last November.
The ECtHR has sent a notification to Cumhuriyet lawyer Fikret İlkiz telling him that his clients’ cases will be taken up as soon as possible. Cumhuriyet lawyers applied to the ECtHR in early March when an application they filed at Turkey’s Constitutional Court in December had still not been reviewed.
The Cumhuriyet journalists and executives face allegations of aiding the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) and “FETÖ.”
“FETÖ” is a derogatory term and acronym for the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,” coined by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to refer to the Gülen movement, which Erdoğan and the AKP accuse of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15. The movement strongly denies the accusation.