ISTANBUL: Four Turkish academics go on trial Friday for “terrorist propaganda” in the latest of a series of court cases that have highlighted growing restrictions on free speech under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Across town, journalists accused of divulging state secrets also return to court for the third hearing of their Istanbul espionage trial.

The university scholars are being prosecuted for signing a petition along with over 1,000 colleagues and supporters denouncing the government’s military operations against Kurdish rebels in the country’s southeast.

Demonstrators were expected to protest in Istanbul ahead of the trial, set to begin at 2 p.m. (1100 GMT).

The petition urged Ankara to halt “its deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region,” infuriating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the dons had fallen into a “pit of treachery.”

The four are accused of engaging in “terrorist propaganda” and “inciting hatred and enmity” for not only signing the plea but making a statement on the same lines on March 10, a day before the petition was published.

If convicted, Esra Mungan Gursoy, Meral Camci, Kivanc Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya face up to seven and a half years behind bars, according to Academics for Peace (BAK), the organization behind the contested statement.