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A Turkish court acquitted a prominent journalist criticizing the government's allegations of secret treason. The judgment of the Criminal Court of Istanbul is another legal success for the bureau chief of the newspaper Cumhuriyet in Ankara, Erdem Gül. He was first sentenced to five years in prison in 2016. In March, an appeal court overturned this verdict. The judiciary then reopened the case, leading to acquittal.
Gul, with the former editor of Cumhuriyet Can Dündar, was accused in 2015 of a report on secret weapons shipments alleged by the Turkish secret services to rebels Islamists in Syria. The report received worldwide media attention. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the
against Dündar and Gül had lodged a criminal complaint, as well as Turkish
Secret Service MIT acted as co-applicant. The prosecution considered that the report was a secret treason. In May 2016, the judgments followed. Dündar was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison.
Both journalists appealed the verdict and remained free during the appeal process. Gül continues to work as an office manager in Ankara Dündar went in exile in July 2016 to Germany. He will not put his head under the guillotine, he said. Dündar writes in the ZEIT a weekly column on autocratic developments in Turkey. ZEIT ONLINE publishes texts in German and Turkish
Language .
In March of this year, the original judgments were annulled. Gül should be acquitted, Dündar, however, because of "spying" a longer prison sentence of up to 20 years received, demanded the highest court of appeal in Turkey. The processes were then reopened separately from each other. The case against Dündar is still ongoing.
The Dündar and Gül trial was the first of a long series of trials against prominent journalists in Turkey. Especially as a result of the coup attempt against the Erdoğan government in July 2016, accusations against journalists have accumulated. An overview of Turkish detained journalists can be found here.
At the end of April, 13 employees of Cumhuriyet were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for terrorism charges, including the famous journalist D & # 39; Ahmet Şık investigation. Appointment procedures are still ongoing. Erdem Gül is still in another case in court.
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