Çakırözer said the journalists must be released immediately and even if they were to face any trial, the charges could be prepared swiftly for the accused to face the judges. He added, “To keep them under arrest is a kind of punishment. I am calling on the Department of Justice to end this immediately.”
The ex-journalist National Assembly representative from the major opposition party CHP visited the journalists who have been arrested last week in Turkey. He reported that the journalists were kept in brutal conditions in isolation cells.
The representative Utku Çakırözer was able to visit and talk to the journalists under arrest all from the opposition media. He made contact with Barış Pehlivan, Barış Terkoğlu, and Hülya Kılınç from Odatv web news site; Murat Ağırel from Yeniçağ; and Aydın Keser and Ferhat Çelik from Yeni Yaşam daily papers. All reporters and journalists were arrested in the last 10 days alone.
Çakırözer said the journalists must be released immediately and even if they were to face any trial, the charges could be prepared swiftly for the accused to face the judges. He added, “To keep them under arrest is a kind of punishment. I am calling on the Department of Justice to end this immediately.”
He said, “Even though the suspected journalists have requested to be put into same holding cells, the government has refused to do so. They are being kept alone in cells made for 3 inmates. Even when they had been arrested during their previous trial for 19 months and charged with organizing to bring down the government, these journalists did not face this type of wrath or isolation.”
Sendika.org News (M.B.)
