Istanbul (AFP)
A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced renowned opposition journalist Can Dündar, exiled in Germany, to more than 27 years in prison on charges of assisting a terrorist group and espionage, local media reported.
The Istanbul court found Mr. Dundar, former editor of the opposition daily Cumhuriyet, guilty of publishing an investigation in 2015 claiming that the Turkish secret service was delivering weapons to Islamist groups in Syria.
In May 2016, Can Dündar was sentenced at first instance to five years and ten months in prison for divulging state secrets, in a case that angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But that verdict was overturned in 2018 by a high court which ordered a new trial against Mr. Dundar on espionage charges carrying a heavier sentence.
In awaiting the verdict rendered on Wednesday, the court said Mr. Dundar was sentenced to 18 years and six months in prison for "disclosure of confidential information and espionage" in connection with the publicaton of the investigation into the weapons supplied to armed Islamist groups in Syria, and to eight years and nine months in prison for "aiding a terrorist organization", in this case the network of preacher Fethullah Gülen.
Mr. Gülen, who lives in exile in the United States, is accused by Ankara of having orchestrated the aborted pustch against President Erdogan in July 2016.
Mr Dündar fled to Germany in 2016 after his first conviction.
In February 2016, Erdogan violently attacked the Constitutional Court, claiming that he had "no respect" for the decision of the highest judicial authority in the country which had allowed the release of Mr. Dundar. for the duration of his trial.
Following the decision of this Court, Mr. Dündar and Erdem Gül, then head of Cumhuriyet's office in Ankara, were then released after more than 90 days in pre-trial detention.
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