Posts
Dramatic Footage Of Assassination Attempt On Turkish Journalist
Earlier
today we reported that
an assailant tried to assassinate the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s
Cumhuriyet newspaper Can Dündar, before the court was to announce
the verdict on his case.
The
paper had published reports implicating the Turkish government in
having links with extremists. The gunman shouted "traitor"
before firing at least three shots at the journalist. Dundar was not
injured in the incident but a journalist was reportedly shot in the
crossfire.
The
incident was captured in the following dramatic video.
Gun attack on Turkish editor outside court during his trial for exposing Turkey-Syria weapons convoy
Turkish court sentences two journalists to over 5yrs for 'leaking state secrets'
RT,
6
May, 2016
Can
Dundar and Erdem Gul, journalists from Turkey’s Cumhuriyet
newspaper, have been convicted on charges of "revealing state
secrets" and sentenced to over five years in prison by an
Istanbul court.
Gun
attack on Turkish editor outside court during his trial for exposing
Turkey-Syria weapons convoy
Dundar,editor-in-chief
of Cumhuriyet newspaper, was sentenced to five years and ten months
in prison, while his colleague, who headed the paper’s Ankara
bureau, got five years behind bars, Turkish Hurriyet daily reported
on Friday.
The
Turkish court has reportedly acquitted them on some of the charges,
including that of “coup attempt,” according to the newspaper.
The
two had also faced life sentences for publishing their report which
claims that Turkey has delivered weapons to terrorists in Syria.
Earlier
in March, the court named Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
as the complainant in the case. The hearings were held in secret.
The
case of the two journalists, who faced charges for revealing state
secrets, espionage, and aiding a terrorist group, has drawn
international attention since the Erdogan critics were jailed last
year.
The Mass Deception
Erdogan accuses journalists of ‘biggest attack’ against Turkey, says court is ‘against country’ too
Dundar
and Gul were arrested in November of 2014 after publishing photos,
videos, and a story earlier that year that they claimed showed
officials from Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT)
transporting arms to Syria in trucks, allegedly to opposition
fighters.
Just
hours before the verdict was announced, Dundar was the target of an
armed attack that took place in front of the Istanbul Caglayan
courthouse. The assailant reportedly fired at least three shots at
the journalist, who was not injured in the incident. The chief judge
reportedly condemned the attack while announcing the court’s
decision.
The
opposition journalists' arrests have sparked protests in Turkey,
while the international community has also slammed the government's
action against them. Moscow has called the case an example of
Ankara's "crackdown on the media."
READ
MORE: 1st edition of Turkish Zaman daily after govt takeover sees
smiling Erdogan on front page
Dundar
and Gul have repeatedly called for their acquittal, asserting that
they had been arrested unlawfully, while maintaining that “journalism
is not a crime.” Dundar told Reuters in March that they were “not
defendants,” but rather “witnesses” in the case, adding that
their arrest had been carried out in order “to punish us and to
frighten others.”
Several
Turkish academics also faced trial in Istanbul in April, when they
were accused of spreading “terrorist propaganda.” The scholars
are part of a group including over a thousand others who signed a
petition earlier this year urging the Turkish government to end what
they called a military intervention into the country’s
predominantly Kurdish southeast. President Erdogan opened legal
proceedings against some of the academics, while international human
rights groups accused Ankara of using its anti-terrorism laws to
silence criticism of the government and the president.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.