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Eight journalists appeared in an İstanbul criminal court on Wednesday in the first hearing of their retrial, made possible when the country’s top court earlier this year overturned their prison sentences, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The retrial of journalists Ahmet Memiş, Ali Akkuş, Cemal Azmi Kalyoncu, Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu, Ünal Tanık, Yakup Çetin, Yetkin Yıldız and Atilla Taş, who also a singer, began on Wednesday at the İstanbul 25th High Criminal Court. They face charges of membership in a terrorist organization due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in July 2016, a claim strongly denied by the movement.

The journalists had previously been convicted of membership in the Gülen movement and sentenced to prison. The Supreme Court of Appeals said the defendants’ actions did not constitute sufficient evidence to prove their affiliation with the group.

The high court in its decision also said the journalists’ publications cannot be viewed as simple journalism, either, and that they constitute the crime of deliberately aiding and abetting the movement without having membership in it.

In their defense statements, the journalists denied having any links to the Gülen movement, saying their actions considered to be criminal were within the limits of journalism. They asked for their acquittal as well as removal of the judicial supervision measures imposed on them.

“Make a ruling that will allow us to say there are [independent] judges in this country,” Taş told the panel of judges.

The court refused to remove the judicial supervision measures imposed on the journalists such as a travel ban, saying they are proportionate to the charges, and adjourned the trial until March 21, 2021

One of the leading jailers of journalists in the world, Turkey was ranked 154th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Muslims from an Austrian NGO on Wednesday visited the scene of a recent attack in Vienna that left four dead and 23 wounded in an incident branded by the Austrian government as a terrorist act, to commemorate the victims.

The Friede Institute for Dialogue, a non-profit organization promoting peaceful coexistence through dialogue, also published a press statement condemning the violence and expressing their condolences for the victims.

UNS BLUTET DAS HERZ. *

We were horrified by the terrorist attack that this time targeted our beloved city and our country. We strongly condemn this despicable and cowardly act. We send our condolences to the relatives of the victims and wish a speedy recovery for the wounded.

We would like to thank all the security forces and health workers who have risked their lives to protect people and prevent things from getting worse. As devout Muslims at the Friede Institute for Dialogue, we are committed to our ideals of living in peace and upholding human dignity, human rights, democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression and pluralism.

“Every human was created as worthy, and every human life is sacred no matter their beliefs.”

Fethullah Gülen, October 30, 2020

Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen clearly expressed our views on the cruelty that took place in his condemnation of last week’s terrorist attacks in France:

“Committing these kinds of atrocities is a clear sign that the perpetrators have not benefited from the Prophet’s message that embraces all of humanity with compassion. At the same time, such actions are the greatest disrespect to his legacy.”

Words can lose their meaning and become inadequate in the face of terrorism. We can find ourselves in deep silence. However, it is exactly the opposite that should prevail against this brutal and inhumane behavior, and we should speak up even more powerfully.

As the Friede Institute for Dialogue, we will continue to express our commitment to peaceful coexistence and persist in our tireless efforts to that end. Every attempt to undermine social peace and harmony will only increase our dedication to our shared values.

*In German: “Our heart is bleeding”

Erdoğan Erduran (52), a former teacher suffering from prostate cancer, has contracted COVID-19 in a prison in the southern city of Antalya where he is in pre-trial detention on trumped-up terrorism charges.

Erduran was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago and was arrested pending trial in November 2019 for alleged membership in the Gülen movement. His treatment was cut short due to his arrest, and although he appealed for release, the Council of Forensic Medicine issued a report stating that he was fit to live in prison conditions.

Erduran has not yet been convicted of a crime. According to the Turkish Penal Code, even prison sentences can be suspended if the convict is critically ill.

The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, of masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016 and labels it a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

Erduran shared a ward with nearly 30 other prisoners, although five were allegedly diagnosed with COVID-19. In an interview with Bold Medya his wife, Sıddıka Erduran, said authorities did not respond to questions concerning her husband’s health.

According to his wife Erduran said their ward was neglected by prison authorities and that his cancer treatment was delayed. “He said even their food was delivered through a small door and that they have been left to die.” She added that Erduran’s cancer had progressed in prison.

Sıddıka Erduran claimed she was not informed about her husband’s condition. “One morning a couple of health officials came to our door and told us my husband had tested positive for the coronavirus. They have not given us any more detail, although I told them he had cancer and that we were extremely worried.”

Her husband has not been taken to a hospital, according to Sıddıka Erduran, and she could not reach prison authorities. Their children are trying to make their father’s case heard on social media platforms to ensure his release.

She claimed that he had access to medication for his cancer only two months ago, with a court decision allowing him to receive injections. ‘We were worried it was too late to treat his cancer, and now this has happened.”

Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 540,000 people were detained on terrorism-related charges, more than 80,000 were arrested or imprisoned and over 150,000 public servants were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations.” The purge mainly targeted people who were allegedly affiliated with the Gülen movement but included other people from a wide variety of backgrounds as well.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement Sunday that his country’s armed forces had destroyed equipment belonging to the Armenian military in retaliation for the latter’s attacks on the country.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said earlier on the same day that Armenia had launched large-scale attacks against its civilians and military, with Baku launching a retaliatory operation along the “contact line” – a heavily-mined no-man’s-land that separates Armenian-backed forces from Azerbaijani troops in the region.

The president said that the fallen among Azerbaijan’s civilians and military would be avenged and that Azerbaijan would defend its territory.

In a televised address to the nation, Aliyev vowed victory over Armenian forces.

“Our cause is just and we will win,” Aliyev said, repeating a famous quote from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s address at the outbreak of World War II with Nazi Germany.

“Azerbaijani army is fighting on its territory,” he said.

“Karabakh is our ours, Karabakh is Azerbaijan,” he said, in reference to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is currently under illegal Armenian occupation.

“This morning, our civilians and military positions were attacked from multiple directions,” Aliyev added, saying that heavy artillery was used by Armenia’s armed forces.

“As a result of the enemy’s attacks, we have suffered both civilian and military casualties. May God grant mercy on the fallen. They will be avenged,” he said.

“The Azerbaijani military is now firing back at the enemy’s military positions. Much of their military equipment has been destroyed,” Aliyev added.

“This attack is another manifestation of Armenian fascism,” he said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani military released a statement, saying that its army is “fully staffed.”

There is no need for total military mobilization as its army is fully staffed, it said.

Azerbaijan liberates six villages

As the clashes continue, Azerbaijani military has captured six villages that were previously under Armenian occupation.

According to a statement by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense, the country’s military forces have liberated the villages from illegal occupation.

Previously, Armenia declared martial law and total military mobilization following clashes with Azerbaijan.

The two former Soviet countries have long been in conflict over the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is under illegal Armenian occupation, with border clashes intensifying in recent months.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared so-called independence during a conflict that broke out as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Though a cease-fire was agreed in 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia frequently accuse each other of attacks around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the separate Azerbaijani-Armenian frontier.

Mutlu Gülerce, one of a group of soldiers kept handcuffed and stripped down to their underwear in a barn after an attempted coup on July 15, 2016, has announced on social media that all the soldiers held in that barn, more than 400 of them, have been acquitted of coup-related charges.

Bu resimdeki askerlerden biriydim.

Devrelerimle birlikte 16 Temmuz sabahında okuldan alınıp bu ahıra götürülmüş ve insanlık dışı muamele görmüştük.

Sonrasında A.Aktaş gibilerin lincine maruz kalmıştık.Bugün ben ve devrelerim Darbeden BERAAT ETTİ.

Söyleyin bu utanmaz müfteriye pic.twitter.com/0T5qUwGsss

— Mutlu Gülerce (@GulerceMutlu) October 27, 2020

A photograph showing dozens of Turkish soldiers huddled together handcuffed and in their underwear in a horse barn became one of the most iconic symbols of the failed coup.

Ali Aktaş of Turkey’s Islamist Felicity Party (SP), who is also a lawyer, shared the photo on Twitter two days after the attempted coup, saying, “The putschist donkeys are kept in the barn.”

Gülerce, a former trainee lieutenant in training and Turkish Military Academy graduate who was detained and expelled from the service after the coup bid, announced in a tweet on Tuesday that all the soldiers kept in the barn were acquitted of coup charges.

“I was one of the soldiers in that photo. With my fellow soldiers, I was taken from the school [the gendarmerie school in Ankara] on the morning of July 16 and brought to this barn, where we faced inhuman treatment. We were then lynched [on social media] by people such as A. Aktaş. My fellow soldiers and I were acquitted today. Let that shameless slanderer know,” Gülerce said, referring to Aktaş.

Gülerce had spoken to Turkish media earlier in 2020 and revealed what happened in the barn.

According to his statements, the inhuman treatment some 400 soldiers were subjected to in the barn included insults, swearing, stripping of their clothes, deprivation of water and 36 hours without food, with the soldiers having to sit cross-legged with their hands cuffed behind their backs, facing the wall.

“It was forbidden to stand up or to talk. They constantly lined us up and counted us. There was psychological and physical pressure. They came periodically and slapped some of us. Some people reached their limit and had nervous collapses and fainted. Others passed out from hunger and thirst,” Gülerce said.

“Let alone asking how the unconscious soldiers were, they didn’t perform any first aid or provide any kind of medical care. The ones who had fainted remained there until they regained consciousness.”

“They were sending us to use the bathroom in a corner of the barn. Sometimes they took us out of the area and made us quickly urinate on the wall. They made us defecate, barefoot and handcuffed, in a few toilets in that place,” he added.

Gülerce also revealed that they were kept in their underwear for a week in a gathering area at Sincan Prison, too.

“It was freezing over there. Some of us got sick. We had a commander who had kidney disease; his situation was worse. We were very cold both in the barn and in Sincan Prison. We gathered in groups of 10 in order to protect ourselves from the cold in Sincan,” Gülerce said.

Some of the defendants in the same case reportedly received sentences for their suspected links to the Gülen movement, which is labeled as a terrorist organization by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), who also accuse Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Muslim preacher who inspired the faith-based movement, of orchestrating the failed coup.

Although Gülen and his followers deny the coup-related allegations against them, the Turkish government has removed more than 130,000 civil servants from their jobs and imprisoned some 80,000 people over links to the movement as part of a crackdown that followed the abortive putsch.

An Ankara-based aviation company owns the aircraft used in alleged renditions of Turkish dissidents by the country’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), according to an investigative report by Nordic Monitor published on Friday.

According to documents published by Nordic Monitor, two Bombardier Challengers with tail numbers TT4010 and TCKLE as well as a Sikorsky S-76C helicopter are owned by Mavi Başkent Havacılık Turizm Ticaret ve Sanayi A.Ş.

The report states that the aircraft were used in secret rendition flights from abroad, with Turkish intelligence orchestrating the abduction of opponents and critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Bombardier Challenger with tail number TT4010 was exposed in a rendition attempt in Mongolia when the country’s vice minister of transportation tweeted pictures of the aircraft waiting on the runway to take Turkish citizens allegedly linked to the Gülen movement back to Turkey.

Turkey accuses the Gülen group, a faith-based network inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016 and designates the group as a terrorist organization.

Чингис хаан ОУНБ-д УИХ-ын Хүний эрхийн дэд хорооны гишүүн @boldlu , ЗТХЯ, ИНЕГ, ХХЕГ, ГЕГ-ын холбогдох хүмүүс ажиллаж байна.

ГХ дэд сайд Б.Батцэцэг удахгүй мэдээлэл хийнэ.

Онгоц хяналтад байна. pic.twitter.com/mB2G0HlkgR

— Шилэн Цогоо (@TsogtgerelB) July 27, 2018

The other Bombardier had been sighted in Pristina during the rendition of six Turkish citizens who were jailed after their return to Turkey in a joint extralegal operation of both countries’ spy agencies that breached 31 laws and regulations, according to the Kosovar parliament.

The front company that owns the private aircraft is operated by Turkey’s spy agency, MİT, according to the Nordic Monitor investigation.

After the scandals, MİT changed the name of the front aviation company, on January 17, 2019, to Mavi Başkent from its original name of Birleşik İnşaat Turizm Ticaret ve Sanayi A.Ş., listed as a construction, tourism and trade firm on paper, according to Nordic Monitor.

Its location was changed on December 23, 2019 to an office address in Çankaya (Meşrutiyet Mahallesi Meşrutiyet Cad. Menderes İş Hanı Apt. No: 9/5) from an office in Yenimahalle (Gayret Mahallesi, Ivedik Caddesi Ahmet Hamdi Sokak No:61), where it was originally located on the compound of MIT headquarters.

According to official trade registry records dating from June 26, 2020, an association established to support MİT operatives called the Foundation for Social Security and Solidarity for National Intelligence Organization Personnel (MİPVAK) owns the Mavi Başkent company. Both MİPVAK and Mavi Başkent are located at the same address in the Turkish capital.

Nordic Monitor delves into details about the members of the executive board and claims that some of them are MİT operatives.

Critics view Turkey’s efforts to bring alleged Gülenists back home as a global threat, as the country’s officials publicly boast about the numbers and vow to apprehend Gülen followers “wherever they are.”

İlhan İşbilen, a former lawmaker from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 at Ankara’s Sincan Prison, the TR724 news website reported on Friday.

İşbilen, 74, was taken to Ankara Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Teaching and Research Hospital after his health deteriorated and is now reportedly suffering from an embolism.

Once a well-known businessman, İşbilen was diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-September but was just put in isolation without being taken to a hospital.

Akın İpek, a businessman living in exile, criticized Turkish authorities on Twitter, accusing them of “attempted murder.”

“İlhan İşbilen, who is 74 years old and has been in isolation in Sincan [Prison] for years, has been hospitalized due to COVID-19. Friends! This is nothing short of attempted murder,” İpek tweeted late on Thursday, referring to the authorities’ negligence in the face of the pandemic.

İşbilen reportedly applied for release on probation numerous times due to the high risk of the spread of the coronavirus in the crowded prison. However, as an opponent of the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his petitions were rejected by the authorities.

Parliament passed a law in April that allowed for the release of tens of thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding in jails and protect detainees from the coronavirus. However, the bill excluded inmates jailed on terrorism charges, including İşbilen and many others swept up in a crackdown following a coup attempt in 2016.

Jailed since the end of 2015, the former MP was sentenced in June 2018 to aggravated life without the possibility of parole. He was convicted of involvement in the 2016 failed coup, despite the fact that he was jailed long before it took place.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court rejected an appeal to release 74-year-old former AKP deputy, İlhan İşbilen, from prison. İşbilen was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 on charges of being a member of the Gülen group || https://t.co/usX0xSrJcI pic.twitter.com/wazXvni6ME

— Turkey Purge (@TurkeyPurge) April 14, 2020

İşbilen’s lawyers had appealed to the Constitutional Court for their clients’ release in March when the government introduced measures against the pandemic, over his chronic diseases and old age that put him in a risk segment.

However, the top court ruled against the demand of İşbilen’s lawyers, saying that the situation of the former deputy did not constitute an imminent risk for him to be released.

İşbilen was accused of links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen. The Erdoğan regime accuses Gülen of orchestrating the abortive putsch and labels the movement a terrorist organization. Living in self-imposed exile in the US, Gülen denies any involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

The former lawmaker resigned from Erdoğan’s ruling AKP in February 2014 in protest of corruption investigations into the Erdoğan government at the end of 2013. While announcing his resignation at a press conference, İşbilen accused the government of surveilling him and his family, in reference to a bugging device planted by the authorities in his house.

His allegations were later confirmed in a report by Nordic Monitor, a Stockholm-based research and monitoring network focusing on extremism, terrorism, crime, foreign policy, security and military matters. The organization last year revealed official documents, including photos, videos and transcripts of phone conversations showing that İşbilen and his family were regularly monitored by the Turkish police.

Similar to İşbilen, another prisoner was declared brain dead on Tuesday after having collapsed in his prison cell on September 15, the Bold Medya news website reported. Cengiz Karakurt, a 41-year-old former teacher, was also behind bars on accusations of membership in the Gülen movement.

The teacher’s wife, Hatice Karakurt, was quoted by Bold Medya as saying that he was taken to the hospital several times but was sent back to his cell with antibiotics for treatment of a cold, despite the fact that he had reasons for his urgent release from prison, including having undergone open-heart surgery for aortic valve regurgitation. His release was only agreed by Turkish authorities a day after he was declared brain dead.

Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a member of parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Committee, criticized the AKP government over its inaction in the incident.

“There is once again negligence and violations [by the authorities]. The lives of prisoners should not be this worthless!” the lawmaker tweeted.

Siirt Cezaevinde riskli hasta grubunda olan ve günlerdir yoğun bakımda yatan KHKlı mahpus Cengiz Karakurt Covid 19 nedeniyle bugün vefat etti

Yine önemli ihmaller ve ihlaller var!!!

Mahpusların hayatı böyle ucuz olmamalı @adalet_bakanlik @ctekurumsal

Tek kişilik koğuştaydı!

— Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu (@gergerliogluof) September 22, 2020

Gergerlioğlu had also slammed Turkish officials on Thursday for another death in a Turkish prison. Ali Boçkan, an 80-year-old Kurdish inmate, died on Wednesday without being allowed to see his family for the last time, according to a report by the Gazete Duvar news website. Boçkan was imprisoned for holding a Muslim memorial service in his mother tongue of Kurdish, the report said.

“Ali Boçkan’s death took place under a government that claims to be religious for holding a memorial service in Kurdish,” the report quoted Gergerlioğlu as saying.

80-year-old Kurdish man imprisoned for speaking mother tongue dies of illness in Turkey’s east https://t.co/iw7swcCrfz @gergerliogluof aracılığıyla

— Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu (@gergerliogluof) September 24, 2020