The journalists, Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and its Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul, were charged over a report that detailed Turkey’s shipping of weapons to jihadists in Syria.
The lawyers for Dundar and Gul wrote in their appeal that they objected to a court decision in November which they said contradicted the Turkish constitution and law. “The rest is yours. It’s your choice and responsibility,” the lawyers said.
The journalists are being detained pending trial, but no date has been set. A trial date may be months away, the lawyers said.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said publication of state secrets amounted to a “crime” but suggested that both men should be released pending trial.
“I am of the opinion that it would be accurate to proceed down a path of a release pending trial except for compulsory cases,” he said.
In its reports on Turkish weapons shipments to Syria, Cumhuriyet revealed that Turkish security forces in January 2014 intercepted a convoy of trucks near the Syrian border carrying boxes of what it described as weapons and ammunition bound for Syria. Video footage published on the newspaper’s website in May showed police opening crates of weapons and ammunition on the back of trucks which Cumhuriyet claimed belonged to the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT).
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Dundar he would “pay a heavy price” for the report.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said “we have not forgotten the differences that still remain with Turkey over human rights and freedom of the press, and we will return to them.”
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http://www.worldtribune.com/turkish-journalists-who-reported-arms-shipments-to-jihadists-charged-as-spies/
Photo: A journalism union member holds a copy of Cumhuriyet daily newspaper on Nov. 29 in Istanbul during a demonstration after the arrest of the paper’s editor in chief. /AFP