A Turkish court ordered on Friday the conditional release of the Cumhuriyet daily's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu and journalist Ahmet Şık, who were accused of having links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

The Istanbul 27th High Criminal Court's committee ruled for the release of the two among 18 suspects in the trial at the courthouse in Silivri.

Cumhuriyet chairman Akın Atalay and Ahmet Kemal Aydoğu, who maintained a popular FETÖ-linked Twitter account, were ordered to remain in prison.

The prosecutors' 324-page indictment claims Cumhuriyet was effectively taken over by FETÖ and used to "veil the actions of terrorist groups." The newspaper and the suspects have denied the accusations.

The majority of the evidence in the indictment comes from social media posts, along with allegations that staff members had been in contact with users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the government says FETÖ members used.

The charges the suspects face in the Cumhuriyet trial include "membership of an armed terrorist organization" and "helping an armed terrorist organization while not being a member of it."