Court rules for release of Zaman chief editor, Samanyolu manager arrested

Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı (L) and Samanyolu Broadcast Group head Hidayet Karaca (R) pose smiling at the camera after the announcement of the ruling. (Photo: Cihan)
Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı (L) and Samanyolu Broadcast Group head Hidayet Karaca (R) pose smiling at the camera after the announcement of the ruling. (Photo: Cihan)


Date posted: December 19, 2014

A Turkish court ruled on Friday to release the editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily, five days after he was detained on charges of forming and leading an armed terrorist organization.

The court ruled that four others, including Samanyolu TV General Manager Hidayet Karaca, be arrested pending trial.

Zaman Editor-in-Chief Dumanlı and Karaca were detained on Sunday along with a number of other journalists, scriptwriters, producers and police officials in an operation largely viewed as a politically-motivated crackdown on the critical media. Some of the detainees were already released following questioning.

A court ordered that Dumanlı and seven others who were detained on Dec. 14 to be released. However, Karaca and former police chiefs Tufan Ergüder, Ertan Erçıktı and Mustafa Kılıçaslan will be jailed pending trial. They were arrested on charges of forming and leading an armed terrorist organization.

He was released due to lack of evidence. His release, which was announced soon after he learned that his wife had given birth to a baby girl on Friday morning, comes on the condition that he doesn’t leave the country.

Thousands gathered outside Çağlayan Courthouse in İstanbul to show support for the detained journalists and police officials. While crowds celebrated the release of Dumanlı in the courtyard of the courthouse, they protested the arrest order for Karaca and the former police chiefs.

According to reports circulating in the Turkish media, no one except the suspects and their lawyers were allowed in the courtroom.

The testimonies of Dumanlı and Karaca were taken 80 hours after they were first taken into custody.

In his remarks after the ruling was announced, Karaca said: “We believe in God; there is no room for sorrow. … When there is an arrest based on a fictional scenario, it means that the ruling is fictional too.” He added that those who ruled for his arrest will also be put on trial one day.

Source: Today's Zaman , December 19, 2014

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Erdogan Uses Coup Like Hitler Used Reichstag Fire, Austrian Far-right Leader Says

Turkey’s failed coup and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s subsequent purges of state institutions are reminiscent of the Reichstag fire in Nazi Germany and its use by Hitler to amass greater power, the head of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party said.

Wedding gifts will help build dorm and water wells in Tanzania

Ubeyd and Nurefşan Yeşil donated the gifts presented at their wedding to the Hizmet in Tanzania. Almost $40,000 value donation will be used in the construction of a college dormitory and water wells.

Gulen admits meeting key figure in Turkey coup plot, dismisses Erdogan’s ‘senseless’ claims

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Fethullah Gulen admitted meeting a key figure in Turkey’s July 2016 attempted coup. But the Turkish cleric said that a mere visit from one of his followers isn’t proof he orchestrated the failed coup.

Ex-AK Party deputy Özdalga: Gov’t wants to make judiciary subordinate to executive power

“The issue is not only about corruption, it is also about the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, things at the heart of the democratic regime. There is no democracy without these,” says Haluk Özdalga, who was a member of the ruling party since 2007 until his recent resignation.

Kurds, Turkey and growing with Öcalan’s help?

As far as the Kurds living in other countries are concerned, as Fethullah Gülen underscored in his Rudaw newspaper interview, Turkey should not only be interested in the well-being of Turks’ ethnic brothers in other countries but also Kurds’ and other ethnically non-Turkish citizens’ brothers and relatives all over the world. Thus, instead of seeing an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria as a threat, we must be happy that our Kurdish relatives on the other side of the border will hopefully have better living standards and human rights.

(Not a joke) Turkish governor: ISIL terrorist detonated himself in construction site not to harm neighbors

Following the detonation of an Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist in Turkey’s Gaziantep province on Sunday, the governor told reporters that the suicide bomber detonated himself in a construction site in order not to cause problems for the neighbors.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Ankara assassination: Why Erdogan blames the Gulenists and ignores the jihadists

Gülen says prefers staying longer in US to avoid ‘harming positive things’

‘If you are against us, you are the other’

In Turkey, how Germany’s president became ‘Germany’s imam’

GYV hosts guests from Istanbul’s Armenian Patriarchate at Abraham’s table

Turkish Olympiads close with perfect ceremony

Myanmar-based family abducted by Turkish embassy from Yangon airport

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News