'Turkish court jails magazine editors for over 22 years'

Istanbul, May 22 (IANS/AKI) An Istanbul court sentenced two magazine chiefs to 22 years and six months in prison on for fomenting an armed rebellion against the government, media reports said on Monday.

The court ordered the editors of the investigative Nokta magazine Cevheri Guven and Murat Capan to be jailed immediately, reported private daily Milliyet and Dogan news agency .

Nokta was closed on July 27 last year along with 130 other media outlets in an ongoing crackdown by Turkey's authorities that has seen around 159 journalists jailed as of the end of April.

Guven and Capan had published an issue of the magazine in 2015 which said on the cover a "civil war" was to begin in Turkey on November 2. This was the date when Turkey held its parliamentary election that year after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP party failed to secure a majority for the first time since 2002.

The Turkish government is using its vast powers under an ongoing state of emergency to carry out a massive purge of media accused of links to the failed military coup last July and its alleged orchestrator, controversial US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, according to watchdogs.

Gulen and 27 former generals were among 221 suspects accused of being behind the botched July 2016 coup who went on trial in the Turkish capital, Ankara on Monday.

Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup attempt and is among nine defendants being tried in absentia.

--IANS/AKI

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