Journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu to stand trial tomorrow

Journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu, who has been held in pre-trial detention since May 2023, will stand trial tomorrow for the first time.

News Center- Abdullah Gök, editor at the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), was released from prison at the second hearing held yesterday. The first hearing of the trial against journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu, Co-chair of the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, will be held tomorrow by the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court.

 On April 29, 2023, police raided many houses in 15 cities as part of an investigation launched in Ankara and detained 19 people, including Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association Co-chair Dicle Müftüoğlu and Mesopotamia Agency (MA) editor Sedat Yılmaz. On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, they were sent to prison on terrorism charges.

43-page indictment

A 43-page indictment was prepared against Dicle Müftüoğlu by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and presented to the court on September 6. The indictments did not mention the journalist until the final two pages. In the indictment, Dicle Müftüoğlu’s travels, financial transactions, and logs of phone calls with other journalists, politicians and human rights activists were also cited as evidence.