On 24 November 2016, the first hearing was held in the case against the translator Necmiye Alpay, the author Aslı Erdoğan and other members of the advisory board of the now banned newspaper Özgür Gündem. The hearing took place in the court house in Çağlayan, Istanbul.
Aslı Erdoğan was arrested on 19 August 2016 and Necmiye Alpay on 31 August 2016. Both have been in detention since then.
Alpay and Erdoğan have been acquitted of the charge of ‘disrupting the unity of the state and the integrity of the country’. However, they’re still on trial on charges of membership of an armed organization, setting up an organization with criminal purposes and making propaganda for a terrorist organization. They risk a life sentence in solitary confinement.
The hearings in the case, which also involve other writers and journalists, is postponed until 14 February 2017.
Aslı Erdoğan and Necmiye Alpay