Defendants: Can Dündar, İnan Kızılkaya

Media Outlet and Position: Özgür Gündem – Editor-in-chief, Managing Editor

Accusations: Insulting a public official because of his duty

Possible sentence:   –

Court: İstanbul 2. Criminal Court

Case Background:

İnan Kızılkaya, the managing editor of now-stuttered pro-Kurdish Özgür Gündem, and Can Dündar, who worked as a guest editor-in-chief for Özgür Gündem for one day as part of a “Editors-in-Chief on Watch” solidarity campaign, face prosecution on the charges of “insulting a public official” over articles titled “The Judge of the Corruption” and “Most Useful Judge of the Palace Regime” published in 2016. The articles concerned the judge of İstanbul 1. Peace Court who was allegedly ruling in favor of the ruling AKP during investigations on corruption in the government in 2013, also known as “15-25 December Corruption Investigation”.

An arrest warrant against Dündar, who currently lives in exile in Germany, has been issued by the court.

During the third hearing on April 27, 2017, Dündar’s lawyers requested Dündar’s statement to be submitted from abroad and requested additional time to present Dündar’s current address in Germany. The court accepted the request and decided to wait for a reply from German authorities. There is yet no reported reply from the German authorities on Dündar’s request to submit his defense in absentia.

The sixteenth hearing was held on March 4, 2021.  Journalists were represented by their lawyers in the courtroom. The court stated that the rogatory request issued for Dündar was sent back to the court unreplied. The court decided to wait for the execution of the arrest warrant issued for Dündar.The hearing was adjourned to July 13.

During the hearing on July 13, the court decided to wait for the execution of the warrant against Can Dündar and  the reply  to the rogatory documents regarding the removal of his defense from abroad.

The next hearing will be held on November 2.

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