Freedom for Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener

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Despite all protests (including the EU) the journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener are imprisoned since 3 March 2011. On 22 November 2011 their trial with another 12 defendants will start at Istanbul Heavy Penal Court 16. Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener are accused of having supported the clandestine organization Ergenekon in its aim to overthrow the Turkish government.

The "evidence" is the draft of a book, in which Ahmet Şık presented the thesis that the sect of Fethullah Gülen had infiltrated the Turkish police. The prosecution interprets notes in the draft as instructions of Ergenekon to shift the attention from the Ergenekon trials to criticism of a sect. The "crime" of Nedim Şener is defined as having taken the instructions to Ahmet Şık.

While at the beginning of the investigation against Ergenekon in 2007 there were hopes that secret structure of the State within a State (the "deep State") and brutal abuses of human rights in the 1990ies could be unmasked the indictments and trials against alleged plotters with many secret witnesses and fabricated evidence have since then become the campaign of the Party of Justice and Development (AKP), in power since almost nine years, against critics of them and the Islamic sects and parishes that are supporting the government.

We demand

• an immediate end to the 8-month imprisonment of Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener
• no intimidation of journalists with trials based on flimsy arguments
• an objective observation of the trial by international bodies

More than one year after their arrest Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener were released on 12 March 2012. As Bianet of 12 March 2012 reported Coşkun Musluk and Sait Çakır, reporter for the portal OdaTV, were released too. The hearing was adjourned to 18 June 2012.

The action of the DTF has ended. The Democratic Turkey Forum has sent the list with signatures to the Turkish Embassy in Berlin.

See also

• Information on Ahmet Şık in Wikipedia (English)
• Information on Nedim Şener in Wikipedia (English)
• PEN Free Expression Award winner, Nedim Sener, and writer Ahmet Sik formally charged Some info on Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener
• Summarized translation of the draft "The Army of the Imam" (English)
• Resolution of the EU dated 9 March 2011 (English)