Life Sentence for Truth in Media: Turkish Journalists Face Life Sentences after Uncovering Arms Supply to Syria Terrorists
Two of Turkey’s leading
journalists [ both pictured left] on Wednesday faced a possible life
prison sentence after they were charged with plotting to overthrow the
government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by reporting on secret arms
shipments to Syria.
Turkish prosecutors demanded
life sentences for two top journalists who reported that President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s government tried to ship arms to insurgents in Syria.
Prosecutors asked the Istanbul
court to sentence Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and
Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul each to one aggravated life sentence, one
ordinary life sentence and 30 years in jail, the Dogan news agency
reported, quoting the indictment.
The report said that both
Erdogan and his hugely powerful but low-profile ally, the head of the
National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Hakan Fidan, are named as
plaintiffs in the indictment.
Dundar and Gul were both
placed under arrest in late November over the report earlier in the year
that claimed to show proof that a consignment of weapons seized at the
border in January 2014 was bound for Takfiri (Al Qaeda) militants in
Syria.
Since then, they have both
been held in the Silivri jail on the outskirts of Istanbul ahead of
their trial, whose date has still yet to be announced.
In the indictment, they have
been formally charged with obtaining and revealing state secrets “for
espionage purposes” and seeking to “violently” overthrow the Turkish
government as well as aiding an “armed terrorist organization”, it said.
The penalties demanded by the prosecutors are significantly higher than had previously been expected.
The case has amplified
concerns about press freedom under the rule of Erdogan, who had
personally warned Dundar he would “pay a price” over the front-page
story.
The Syrian government blames
the United States along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the Israeli
regime for backing terrorist groups inside the country.
The original source of this article is Alwaght
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