Pınar Gayıp, an editor for the socialist Etkin News Agency (ETHA) is standing trial on the charge of being a member of a terrorist organization after spending more than seven months in jail after a raid on her news outlet’s offices in Istanbul.
Gayıp was imprisoned in February 2026 but at the first hearing of her trial on September 14, 2026, the court released her pending trial, and the next hearing is set for December 7.
Turkish authorities raided the Istanbul offices of ETHA on February 3, 2026 as part of a larger operation targeting the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and civil society groups on suspicion of having ties to the banned Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), which Turkey designates a terrorist group. More than 100 people were detained during the operation, including Gayıp, as well as ETHA editor Nadiye Gürbüz and reporter Elif Bayburt.
On February 5, the three journalists were arrested pending trial on suspicions of terrorist organization membership.
CPJ inspected the three indictments and monitored the court hearings of Gayıp on September 14, 2026; Gürbüz on September 15, 2026; and Bayburt on September 17, 2026 in the Istanbul Courts of Serious Crimes.
At those hearings, Gayıp and Bayburt were released pending trial but Gürbüz remained imprisoned at least until her next hearing in December, with the court determining that she could not be released because all the witnesses had not been heard.
In all three indictments, prosecutors based the charge of MLKP membership on the fact that the journalists were employed by ETHA and had attended certain public events. All three journalists told the courts they were not members of the MLKP.
CPJ emailed the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Istanbul for comment in September 2026 but did not receive a reply.