Akın Atalay

Akın Atalay is a Turkish lawyer and managing director of Cumhuriyet newspaper , one of the most traditional daily newspapers in Turkey. Atalay is also Vice Chairman of the Cumhuriyet Foundation. He has been with Cumhuriyet since 1992 as legal advisor, attorney and board member.

Atalay was arrested in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt on charges that he and his newspaper supported the PKK and the Gülen movement. He was arrested on November 10, 2016. Subsequently, pre-trial detention was imposed.

Atalay's arrest was preceded by the arrest of Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu on October 31, 2016, and eight other newspaper employees. According to the state news agency Anadolu , Atalay should also be arrested, but was in Cologne at the time . He was arrested at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on November 10, 2016 when he was coming from Berlin.

The Turkish public prosecutor's office accused Cumhuriyet of supporting the PKK and the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen . Atalay had told the taz before the arrest: “The allegations are so absurd that we are only speechless. Everyone knows they are lies. The government's only goal is to shut down Cumhuriyet completely. It's about silencing all critical voices in society. We call on the whole world to show solidarity with Cumhuriyet and to resist this injustice. "

On April 25, 2018, a court of first instance convicted Atalay, the editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and the prominent investigative journalist Ahmet Sik “for supporting terrorist organizations”. Atalay received over eight years' imprisonment, Sabuncu and Sik each seven and a half years. They are free as long as their review procedures are ongoing.

See also

• List of media workers detained in Turkey (after 2000)

Footnotes

1. ^ Turkey: Cumhuriyet editor Atalay arrested . In: The time . November 11, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed March 7, 2018]).
2. ↑ morgenpost.de November 11, 2016
3. ↑ spiegel.de: Long prison sentences for "Cumhuriyet" journalists in Istanbul