International

Two Turkish journalists jailed for revealing state secret

Published

8 years ago

May 7, 2016

Two prominent journalists in Turkey are both to spend the next 5-years behind bars. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, was given five years and 10 months in jail and Erdem Gul, the paper’s Ankara bureau chief, was handed a five-year term by a court for revealing state secrets over report about alleged government arms shipments to Syria.

But the pair were acquitted of a number of charges, including trying to topple the government and espionage.

The duo will not immediately go to prison after the court separated charges of links to terrorist organisations to await a verdict in a separate trial.

US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the ruling, saying Dundar and Gul were “unjustly sentenced”.

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“But what was really on trial was the Turkish criminal system, which is guilty of gross misconduct,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

The prison terms were announced shortly after Dundar evaded an assassination attempt on him outside the court on Friday.

The assailant reportedly yelled “traitor” before opening fire, hitting another journalist who had been covering the trial.

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