A criminal high court in Istanbul postponed the trial of two Turkish journalists Friday, who face three charges, including espionage and helping a terrorist organization.
The closed hearing was adjourned until April 1, after several opposition parliamentarians entered the courtroom to follow the proceedings, and refused to leave despite being warned by the judges.
The court also decided to file a criminal complaint against the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers for "preventing a fair trial".
Cumhuriyet newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and its Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül were released from prison Feb. 26 after Turkey's Constitutional Court found their rights had been violated.
The journalists had been in custody since late November last year, when they were arrested for Cumhuriyet's publication of photos and a story about trucks used by MİT. The trucks were on a secret mission carrying humanitarian aid to displaced people in Syria, according to the government, when prosecutors and troops stopped them in a southern city near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2014. Prosecutors and military officers who stopped and inspected the trucks were later arrested for alleged links to FETÖ.
Gül, Erdem, their lawyers and spouses attended Friday's hearing, along with the lawyers that represent plaintiffs, which include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the MIT.
The journalists also face charges of "knowingly and willfully" helping the terrorist FETÖ/PDY organization or the so-called "parallel state".
The Gülen Movement, led by U.S.-based former preacher Fethullah Gülen, is at the center of a string of terror investigations following two attempts to overthrow the government in 2013. The group is accused of illegal activities ranging from terrorism to illegal wiretapping, as well as blackmail and imprisonment of critics.
Following the coup attempt, the government has launched a purge of Gülenists who had infiltrated into law enforcement, judiciary and key posts in bureaucracy. A large number of police officers, prosecutors and judges were either suspended from duty or convicted on terror charges, while senior members of the Movement and judiciary figures linked to Gülenists have fled abroad.
