Mustafa Balbay

Mustafa Ali Balbay (born August 8, 1960) is a journalist, writer and former Turkish MP. As the main political correspondent in Ankara for the left-wing Kemalist daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, he wrote a regular column called Gözlem which he took over from the prominent investigative journalist Ugur Mumcu, who was assassinated in 1993. Balbay was arrested on March 5, 2009 as an Ergenekon suspect in the Odatv case, and in August 2009 he was sentenced to 34 years and eight months.

Journalistic career Mustafa Balbay began his journalistic career in 1980 as a student reporter for a local newspaper called Gazete İzmir. The following year, he was hired by the centre-left daily Milliyet for their İzmir office and later moved to Cumhuriyet'''s office in İzmir as a permanent correspondent. In 1985, he became the chief investigating reporter in İzmir for the same newspaper. In 1989, he moved to their headquarters in Ankara to work as the news director. In 1992, Balbay was appointed Cumhuriyet news director in Istanbul. In 1993, he was appointed as the main political correspondent in Ankara for the left-wing Kemalist daily newspaper Cumhuriyet. Later, he gave some lectures for the Faculty of Journalism of Gazi University. Additionally, in 2009 he had a political talk show called Ankara Rüzgari (Winds from Ankara), co-chaired by the journalist Emin Çölaşan, on Avrasya TV (ART). After his arrest, he continued writing his regular column for Cumhuriyet.

Ergenekon case Mustafa Balbay is detained as part of the government's investigation into the alleged Ergenekon plot, that authorities claim was aimed at overthrowing the current Turkish government through a military coup. He was initially detained on July 1, 2008, brought to Istanbul, and questioned about his news coverage and his relations with the military and other Ergenekon suspects. Police searched his house and the Ankara office of Cumhuriyet'', confiscating computers and documents. He was released four days later. However, Balbay was detained a second time in March 2009 and placed at Silivri F Type Prison in Istanbul pending trial. He was moved to solitary confinement on February 28, 2011. On February 25, 2011, the president of the Court, Köksal Şengün, officially opposed his detention, however, the court decided to keep him in detention with majority votes.

Legal charges being a member of an armed terrorist organization attempting to overthrow the government provoking an armed uprising unlawfully obtaining, using, and destroying documents concerning government security disseminating classified information. The evidence against Balbay consisted of documents seized from his property and office, the news stories he produced, wiretapped telephone conversations, and secretly recorded meetings with senior military and government officials. Balbay was released after four years and 277 days of imprisonment in the Sincan Prison in Ankara on December 9, 2013.