Ankara, SAEDNEWS, Dec. 24: The court found Can Dundar – who fled to Germany in 2016 – guilty in connection with an article about an alleged Turkish arms shipment to Islamist Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
He was sentenced to 18 years and nine months for “securing confidential information for espionage” and eight years and nine months for “aiding a terrorist group” led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.
The Turkish government blames the cleric for orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Dundar called the ruling a political “vendetta” organised against him by Erdogan.
The Turkish leader had warned Dundar that he would “pay a heavy price” when the story was first published together with an accompanying video of the alleged weapons supplies in 2015.
“This is a political decision, a vendetta which has nothing to do with law,” Dundar told AFP by phone from Germany.
“Erdogan already warned me that I would pay a price. Now he is trying to have me pay a price.” (Source: France 24).
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