Last night the court has announced a verdict in the trial against the journalists of the Cumhuriyet newspaper. Rebecca Harms, Member of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, who followed the entire trial closely, also partly from the courtroom, comments on the matter:
"Surprisingly the judges in Silivri have passed a sentence in the Cumhuriyet process already yesterday. Eventhough Akin Atalay has been released and for now none of the defendants have to go back to jail, the convictions and announced prison sentences of up to 7,5 years are very harsh. The detailed opinion hasn’t been published yet, but it is clear that journalists and employees of Turkey's oldest independent newspaper have been convicted because they have done their work to the best of their knowledge and conscience. This way journalism becomes a crime. The judgment is another frightening sign that the Turkish judiciary has abandoned the protection of fundamental rights, which inalienably include the freedom of the press. The sentences exacerbate the pressure on journalists in Turkey who still dare to work independently.
The European Court of Human Rights must immediately process the complaints of Sabuncu and Şik against Turkey. It is obvious that in the case of Turkey the right to effective domestic remedy is not guaranteed."
