Turkey starts trial of 30 newspaper staff for links to coup attempt

ISTANBUL – Thirty journalists and newspaper executives from a Turkish newspaper which was shut down last year went on trial on Monday, facing life sentences over charges that they had links to a failed coup attempt.

The former employees of the Zaman newspaper are charged with "membership of an armed terror organization" and "attempting to overthrow" the government, parliament and the constitutional order through their links to cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Zaman was affiliated with Gulen, the US-based cleric and former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen is blamed by Ankara for instigating the failed July 2016 coup, but denies any involvement.