ISTANBUL – A Turkish court on Sunday charged two prominent journalists with plotting against the Islamist-rooted government and remanded them in custody, press reports said.
Investigative journalists Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik refused to answer prosecutors' and judges' questions after their arrest Thursday, news channel NTV said as a group of journalists protested their custody outside the Istanbul court.
Sik is co-author of a book about the investigations and trials in the Ergenekon case – named after an organization allegedly at the center of a conspiracy. He had been working on a book about the police.
Sener wrote a book on the murder of Hrant Dink, a well-known journalist and human rights defender, and the investigation into his killing.
In all 10 people, most of them journalists, were placed in preventive detention Thursday on suspicion of an alleged plot against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Two suspects arrested Thursday were released after questioning. The six other detainees were to be questioned by a judge by Monday and could be charged or freed.
The opposition and a substantial part of the media say the supposed conspiracy, which has led to the incarceration of hundreds of opposition figures since 2007, is a means of stifling all political dissent in Turkey.
After the latest wave of arrests the European Union, which Ankara wants to join, and the United States expressed concern about press freedom in Turkey.
Most of the journalists detained Thursday are critics of the Turkish government. The law allows them to be questioned for four days before they are taken to court to be freed or charged.
Three other journalists were arrested and charged two weeks ago.
Turkey will hold legislative elections on June 12 in which Erdogan's Justice and Development Party will seek a third term.
Erdogan has refused any government intervention in an "independent judicial system" but President Abdullah Gul told the Milliyet newspaper on Sunday he was "worried" about the latest developments as they cast a pall over Turkey's reputation overseas.
"When I see what is happening I see developments that hurt the public conscience," he said.
Judicial authorities should be very careful not to ride roughshod over the suspects' "honour and rights" he added.
Thousands of people, many of them journalists, turned out Friday in Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the arrests.
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