Court rejects lawyer’s request for extension of investigations, rules to keep Yeni Asya editor Kılınç in house arrest 

A prosecutor sought up to 15 years in prison for Nur Ener Kılınç, an editor for the Yeni Asya newspaper, currently in house arrest after being released from pretrial detention at the latest hearing of her trial on February 20.

Submitting his final opinion during the latest hearing of Kılınç’s trial overseen by the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court on April 19, the prosecutor requested that Kılınç is handed down between 7.5 and 15 years in prison on the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization” as per Article 314/2 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and Article 5 of the Anti-Terror Law.

Ener was arrested and sent to prison on remand in March 2017 on “membership in a terrorist group” charge on account of being a ByLock user, an encrypted messaging application purported to be used exclusively by the members of the Fethullah Gülen network, which the government accuses of being the perpetrators behind the attempted coup of July 15, 2016.

Sources contacted by P24 said Kılınç’s lawyer Mustafa Özbek had filed a petition requesting the extension of investigations as well as a motion for an expert to be appointed on the ByLock allegation, both of which were rejected by the court.

Kılınç’s lawyer requested during the April 19 hearing once again that the investigation is extended, which the court rejected once again.

In its interim decision, the court ruled for the continuation of Kılınç’s house arrest and set May 24, 2018, as the date of the next hearing.