Former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Cumhuriyet sentenced to 27 years in prison

Turkish journalist Jan Dundar, who currently lives in Germany, was sentenced by an Istanbul court to more than 27 years in prison on charges of espionage and aiding a terrorist organization, the DPA reported.

Dundar was sentenced to 18 years and 9 months in prison for acquiring state secrets for political or military espionage, according to the verdict.

The reason for the accusation is that the Cumhuriyet newspaper published in 2015 information about the supply of weapons to the Turkish intelligence service for Islamist insurgents in Syria.

The court sentenced the former editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper to another eight years and nine months for supporting a terrorist organization without being a member.

Dundar’s attorneys did not attend the hearing, saying they “do not want to be part of a proceeding that legitimizes a predetermined political sentence,” writes BTA.