Wednesday December 23, 2020
Judgment in Turkey
Journalist Dündar receives a long prison sentence
The journalist Can Dündar is tried in Turkey because of an explosive newspaper report. Now the verdict has been reached: more than 27 years in prison. Dündar himself is not present at the trial, he is in German exile.
Can Dündar, a journalist living in exile in Germany, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison in Turkey. Dündar received a sentence of 18 years and nine months for, in the opinion of the judges, having obtained state secrets for the purpose of military and political espionage. The court also sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison for supporting terrorism, according to the protocol.
He was therefore acquitted of the charge of having disclosed secret information. The court also ordered Dündar's arrest again. Dündar's lawyers boycotted the trial in protest. They had justified the decision beforehand by stating that they did not want to legitimize a judgment that had already been politically decided.
The background to the proceedings against Dündar is a newspaper report from 2015 in which the government-critical newspaper "Cumhuriyet" published secret information that was supposed to prove the government's arms deliveries to rebels in Syria. At that time Dündar was editor-in-chief of "Cumhuriyet".
Dündar was sentenced to more than five years imprisonment for betrayal of secrets for the publications in 2016, and was acquitted of allegations of espionage. The Supreme Court in Ankara, however, overturned the ruling in 2018 and declared that new proceedings against Dündar would have to be expanded to include espionage.
Most recently, the court had declared Dündar to be volatile. As a result, his assets in Turkey were confiscated, according to the lawyers. Dündar has been living in Germany since late summer 2016. Several proceedings are pending in Turkey against the journalist.
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