An Istanbul court rejected Friday an appeal for the release of two journalists from the Cumhuriyet newspaper who face charges of espionage and supporting terrorism.
The Istanbul 7th Court of Peace refused freeing the newspaper's editor-in-chief, Can Dündar, and its Ankara bureau head, Erdem Gül, on the grounds that "there is no new evidence to terminate [their] detention."
The defendents' lawyers submitted their appeal to the court Monday.
Dündar and Gül were arrested on Nov. 26 for the publication of photographs and video footage of Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT). They face life in prison if convicted.
The MİT trucks were stopped in January 2014 in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana. At the time, the government said the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's Turkmen community.
An Istanbul prosecutor in charge of the probe against the two journalists has claimed that the MİT trucks were stopped and searched by "managers and members of the [Gülenist Terrorist Organization] FETÖ parallel structure."
The prosecutor has alleged that the search of the MİT trucks had been carried out on the orders of Fethullah Gülenand Emre Uslu, leaders of the FETÖ "parallel structure."
He accused the journalists of disclosing confidential information in articles published by the daily in an alleged attempt to aid the group.
