Turkish journalists face life imprisonment for espionage

ANKARA, April 1: The trial of two Turkish journalists has resumed, with the two defendants facing charges of espionage and aiding a terrorist organization for their reporting that alleged the government was smuggling arms to Syria.
The closed-door trial involves Cumhuriyet newspaper editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul. They could get sentences of life imprisonment if found guilty.
Their case, which has generated international interest as a test of press freedom, went to trial last Friday, but was adjourned until this week after opposition lawyers and politicians ignored the judge’s ruling to close the courtroom to the public. The men are accused of publishing images that date back to January 2014 of Syria-bound trucks, which the newspaper said proved Turkey was smuggling arms into that country. Since then, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by Turkish gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border, belonged to the intelligence agency and said they were carrying aid to Turkmens in Syria, fighting both President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State. Turkey has also alleged the reporters aided an Islamic movement headed by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of Erdogan. U.S. President Barack Obama met Thursday with President Erdogan in Washington on the sidelines of Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit. Obama assured the Turkish leader of the U.S. commitment to Turkish security. Separately Thursday, chaos erupted between Turkish security and protesters outside a Washington think tank, the Brookings Institute, where Erdogan was giving a speech. Media reports said a journalist was removed from the event site by Turkish security personnel and another was kicked by a guard. Earlier this year, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Turkey where he criticized the country’s leaders for cracking down on freedom of expression. He said the Turkish government was not setting the right “example” with its imprisonment of journalists and investigation of academics who have criticized the government’s military campaign against Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeastern sector.-Agencies