Erdoğan demands aggravated life sentence for journalist
ISTANBUL (DİHA) - President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed a criminal complaint against a Turkish newspaper and its editor over a critical news report, asking him to be jailed for life. The move came hours after Erdoğan said the journalist would pay a “heavy price,” as international condemnation poured in.
The footage released by Cumhuriyet on May 29 showed gendarmerie and police officers opening crates on the back of the trucks which contain what the daily described as weapons and ammunition sent to Syria by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) in January 2014.
“This slander and illegitimate operation against the MİT are, in a way, an act of espionage. This newspaper is involved in this espionage activity, too,” Erdoğan said during an interview with public broadcaster TRT late May 31. “I suppose the person who wrote this as an exclusive report will pay a heavy price for this,” he added, referring to Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief, Can Dündar.
Continuing his tough stance on the matter, Erdoğan filed an individual criminal complaint against Dündar and Cumhuriyet on June 2, claiming that the story “included some footage and information that are not factual.”
The criminal complaint, filed to Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office to be sent to Istanbul where Cumhuriyet is based, argued that the newspaper “joined the actions” of the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, Erdoğan’s erstwhile ally, whose followers in the judicial and security organs are now described by the government as “the parallel organization.”
(nt)
