14 June 2017•Update: 15 June 2017
ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court has accepted an indictment against Oguz Guven, the web editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, over a story about the death of a public prosecutor, a judicial source said Wednesday.
Guven is accused of making terrorist propaganda, and disseminating terrorist publications, for which he may face up to 10 years and five months in prison, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions over speaking to the media.
The 28th High Criminal Court also ordered Guven's release from custody until the first hearing scheduled for September 14.
Guven, the editor-in-chief of cumhuriyet.com.tr, was arrested on May 12, and remanded in custody three days later in connection with the online edition of an article about the death of Mustafa Alper, the chief prosecutor of Denizli province in southwest Turkey, who was killed alongside his driver in a traffic accident on May 10.
The truck driver was arrested following the incident.
Referring to Alper’s role in prosecuting alleged members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the story was headlined "A truck rammed chief prosecutor Mustafa Alper, who filed the first FETO indictment".
The headline -- which was changed within an hour -- was widely interpreted on social media as implying a direct link between the FETO investigation and Alper’s death.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen are accused of orchestrating the last July’s attempted coup, as well as previous attempts to overthrow the government through infiltrating state institutions.
The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Ankara had also opened an investigation against fugitive FETO suspects Emre Uslu and Tuncay Opcin, who both made insulting remarks about Alper’s death.
Prosecutors in the capital had said Uslu and Opcin had insulted a public officer and insulted the memory of a dead person, both criminal offenses in Turkey.
Twelve Cumhuriyet journalists and executives are currently in prison facing terror charges.
*Reporting by Murat Kaya, Muhammed Enes Can and Mustafa Hatipoglu; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu
