Can Dündar reported on arms deliveries from Turkey to Syrian Islamists.
Now the journalist is said to have been imprisoned for 27 years - Recep Tayyip Erdogan is once again criticized.
Istanbul / Berlin -
According to media reports, the
Turkish journalist Can Dündar
,
who lives in exile in Germany, has been
sentenced in absentia to a good
27 years in prison
by an Istanbul court
.
The court ordered the arrest of the former
editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper
Cumhuriyet
.
The Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
had already referred to Dündar as an "agent" in the past - there have long been allegations that it was a politically influenced trial against the journalist.
A few days ago, a trial against a German Turk imprisoned in Turkey made headlines that were as bizarre as they were hair-raising.
Erdogan in the criticism: Journalist Dündar sentenced to 27 years imprisonment - was the verdict "long ago taken"?
According to a court record, Dündar was sentenced to 18 years and nine months in prison because, according to the judges, he had obtained
state secrets
with the aim of
military and political espionage
.
The court also sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison for
terrorist support
.
He
was therefore acquitted of
the charge of
having disclosed
secret information
.
The
lawyers Dündars
boycotted in protest the trial.
They had justified the decision beforehand by stating that they did not want to legitimize a judgment that had already been politically decided.
Politicians and journalists also voiced
identical allegations towards
Erdogan
and the
Turkish judiciary
on Wednesday.
“Erdoğan said at the time, 'I won't just let him go'.
The verdict had long since been taken, ”
tweeted
the Turkish TV presenter Banu Güven in German.
The
SPD European Commissioner Udo Bullmann
declared in the short message service that Europe must stand behind Dündar and “everyone who expresses their opinion freely”.
Erdogan pursues a "policy of persecution and oppression".
The EU is in an intensifying dispute with Turkey.
Journalist Can Dündar was sentenced today in Turkey to 27 years and 6 months in prison for reporting on the weapons smuggled into Syria.
Erdoğan said at the time, "I'm not just letting him go".
The judgment had long since been made.
#JournalismIsNotACrime
- Banu Guven (@banuguven) December 23, 2020
Turkey: Dündar reported on arms deliveries to Islamists - Erdogan publicly railed against "agents"
The allegations against Dündar relate to an explosive report about
secret arms deliveries by Turkey to Islamists
in Syria.
Because of this article, Dündar had already been sentenced to several years in prison in 2016.
As a result, he went
into exile
in
Germany
that same year
.
In October, the
Turkish authorities
confiscated
Dündar's property in Turkey.
With the article about the arms deliveries, Dündar had drawn Erdogan's anger.
Erdogan accused Dündar of being an "agent" who divulged "state secrets".
The case also brings back memories of the trial of the German journalist Deniz Yücel.
Can Dündar sentenced in Turkey: Supreme Court overturned previous judgment
Dündar had already been sentenced to more than five years in prison for betrayal of secrets in 2016 for the publications and was acquitted of the charge of espionage.
The
Supreme Court in Ankara
,
however, overturned
the
ruling in 2018
and declared that new proceedings against Dündar must be expanded to include the
criminal offense of espionage
.
Turkey is regularly criticized internationally for its
systematic restriction of the freedom of the press
.
The country currently ranks 154th on the list of international press freedom of the organization Reporters Without Borders.
(
dpa / AFP / fn
)
