Basaran Duzgun, who is editor and columnist at the mass-circulation Kibris daily and a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, said he was charged over an editorial he penned in March on a mock referendum initiative to reunite the divided island, which was violently broken up by police.

The mock referendum was part of a growing protest movement against the incumbent leader of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Rauf Denktash, and Turkey after a UN effort to unify the island failed.

Denktash was blamed by the world body for the failure of the UN peace plan, largely seen as the final chance for a resolution before the island becomes an EU member in May next year.

If there is no peace deal in Cyprus before that date, the EU will only allow in the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot side, leaving the Turkish Cypriots out in the cold.

The article, entitled "Whose Guarantor?, implicitly criticized Turkey -- one of Cyprus' three guarantor states which occupied the north of the island in 1974 -- over the police clampdown and subsequent charges brought against six people on what Duzgun called political motives rather legal evidence.

"Everybody who lives in the country and the world, knows who the TRNC police takes orders from. If this wrong attitude continues, Turkish Cypriots will start asking 'whose guarantor are you?'," read the editorial.

In an indictment issued late Monday, a military prosecutor deemed that the article amounted to insulting the Turkish Cypriot armed forces, which are led by a Turkish commander.

If found guilty, Duzgun, 39, could face ten years in prison.

No date has yet been set for the start of the trial, but it is expected to begin before the end of the month at a military court.

Duzgun said he expected to be detained as Turkish Cypriot law stipulates that any defendant being tried by a military court be remanded in custody during the course of the trial.

"I see the indictment as an oppression campaign to intimidate people who are in favour of a peace deal and EU membership... I am not hopeful over the possible outcome of the trial. I think they will throw me in jail," Duzgun told AFP.

A second columnist from Kibris, Hasan Hasturer, was also charged for an editorial he wrote over the mock referendum, entitled "Democracy with Truncheons in Doganci", the small village where the referendum was held, Duzgun said.

He was charged with inciting hatred against the state with subversive intent, belittling the state and insulting Turkish officials with the intent of damaging ties between Turkey and TRNC.

Hasturer will be tried by a civilian court, and could face 11 years in jail if he is found guilty.

The prosecutions come as the TRNC gears up for general elections in December which threaten Denktash's grip on power.

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