Six people who worked for Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper were returned to prison on Thursday on terrorism-related charges, in a court case widely considered to have grave implications for press freedom in the country.

The six were among 13 employees of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, convicted last year and given sentences of two to seven years. All were detained for nine months before the trial, but then released during an appeals process.

The 13 were accused of serving the interests and aims of three terrorist organizations by altering the newspaper’s editorial line. The bulk of the evidence consisted of news reports, opinion columns and headlines from Cumhuriyet.

The journalists, their lawyers and media freedom organizations denounced the trial as politically motivated.