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- Turkish judges have sentenced Turkish journalist Can Dündar to more than 27 years in prison.
- The 59-year-old is accused of supporting terrorism and “military or political espionage.”
- According to Dündar’s lawyers, the Istanbul prosecutor had demanded up to 35 years in prison.
Can Dündar received a sentence of 18 years and nine months. The 59-year-old man is charged with “military or political espionage.” The court also sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison for supporting terrorism, according to court records. Therefore, he was acquitted of the secret information disclosure charge. The court also ordered Dündar’s arrest again.
Dündar’s lawyers boycotted the trial in protest. They had justified the decision in advance by stating that they did not want to legitimize a judgment that had already been politically decided.
2015 newspaper report caused an offense
The background to the proceedings against Dündar is a 2015 newspaper report in which the government-critical Cumhuriyet newspaper published secret information that was supposed to demonstrate government arms deliveries to rebels in Syria. At the time, Dündar was editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet.
Dündar was sentenced to more than five years in prison for treason of publishing secrets in 2016 and was acquitted of the espionage charges. However, the Ankara Supreme Court reversed the ruling in 2018, declaring that the new proceedings against Dündar should be expanded to include espionage.
Various procedures are still ongoing
More recently, the court had ruled that Dündar was volatile. As a result, his assets in Turkey were confiscated, according to the lawyers. Dündar has lived in Germany since the end of the summer of 2016. Various proceedings against the journalist are underway in Turkey.
