The US condemns imprisonment of the two Turkish journalists
Two prominent Turkish journalists were sentenced on May 6 to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets, Reuters reports.
Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, was given five years and 10 months, and Erdem Gul, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years.
To remind, the journalists were arrested after a story published in Cumhuriyet about Syrian-bound Turkish intelligence trucks filled with weapons for rebel groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Dundar and Mr. Gul were charged with espionage and for being members of a terrorist organization.
The U.S. State Department in a statement voiced concern about the verdicts and called on Turkish authorities to "support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society."
The source reminds that Erdogan had acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organization and said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State.
He accused the journalists of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial.