Prosecutors demand life in prison for Turkish journalists
Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are accused of 'attempting to topple the government, espionage and aiding an armed terror organization'
ISTANBUL
Turkish prosecutors have demanded on Wednesday life imprisonment for two Turkish journalists accused of attempting to topple the government of Turkey and espionage.
In addition, the 473-page indictment prepared by the Istanbul deputy public prosecutor Irfan Fidan called for journalists Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of newspaper Cumhuriyet, and the daily's Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul to be sentenced to 35 years in prison in charges with “aiding an armed terror organization”.
In the indictment, Dundar was accused of trying to legitimate the Dec. 17-25, 2013 coup attempts and cooperating with what the government designates as the Gulenist Terror Organization/Parallel State Structure or FETO/PDY through his articles.
The indictment also claimed that the suspects were writing fabricated articles, based on footages provided by FETO/PDY, despite the fact that there is no concrete information and documents, in order "to associate the Republic of Turkey and its government with terror".
The term "Parallel state" allegedly refers to U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen and his supporters who are accused of orchestrating a corruption probe that targeted high-ranking Turkish officials in December 2013.
Since then, hundreds of police officers have been detained and judicial members reshuffled on charges of eavesdropping on Turkey's top officials, disclosing highly sensitive information, forming and belonging to an organization to commit crime, violating privacy, illegally seizing personal information and forgery of official documents.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s Intelligence (MIT) undersecretariat were cited as the “complainant” in the indictment.
Dundar and Gul were arrested in late November.
Cumhuriyet, where the duo worked, had published photographs and video footage purportedly showing trucks belonging to the Turkish intelligence service MIT, in May 2015.
In January 2014, several trucks were stopped by local gendarmerie in the southern Adana and Hatay provinces on the grounds that they were loaded with ammunition, despite a national security law forbidding such a search. The case saw the arrests of 26 soldiers.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said at the time that the trucks, which were reportedly carrying arms into northern Syria, were, in reality, conveying humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in the war-torn country.
Photographs published by the daily showed several vehicles filled with weapons and ammunition, stacked under cardboard boxes containing medication.
