The 3rd Penal Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the court of appeals, has announced its ruling in the lawsuit filed against journalists and writers for having participated in the "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign in solidarity with the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed by a Statutory Decree on October 26, 2016.
The court of appeals has upheld the prison sentences of seven journalists and acquittal of four journalists.
Announcing its final ruling on April 3, 2019, the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court ruled that Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Fehim Işık, Celal Başlangıç, İhsan Çaralan, Öncü Akgül and Celalettin Can should be sentenced to 1 year, 3 months in prison for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" and Hüseyin Aykol, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, to 3 years, 9 months.
The court ruled that Ömer Ağın, Veysel Kemer, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir and Yüksel Oğuz should be acquitted of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization, inciting to commit crimes, praising the crime and criminal."
Appeals rejected on merits
As reported by Mezopotamya Agency, the court has rejected the appeals of Celalettin Can, Hüseyin Akyol, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Mehmet Fehim Işık, Mehmet Celal Başlangıç, Öncü Akgül and Dilşah Kocakaya against the their conviction of "terror propaganda" in following words:
"...on the grounds that there is no contrariety to law as to the procedure or merits in their conviction, there is no deficiency in evidence or proceedings, the evaluation of proof is sound, the action is defined correctly and overlaps with the type of crime foreseen in the law and the penalty is imposed within the legal context, the reasons put forward by the appealers are not found valid and their appeals have been rejected on merits as per the article 280/1-a of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK)..."
The court of appeals has also upheld the acquittal of Ömer Ağın, Veysel Kemer, Mehmet Şirin Taşdemir and Yüksel Oğuz of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization, openly inciting to commit crimes and praising the crime and criminal; Celalettin Can of openly inciting to commit crimes, praising the crime and criminal, propagandizing for a terrorist organization; and Hüseyin Aykol of "targeting persons who were on duty in fight against terrorism."
