Journalists Yıldız, Dükel sentenced to prison for 'obtaining confidential information'

The journalists stood trial for their phone conversations with a military officer.

İstanbul

Journalists Yıldız, Dükel sentenced to prison for 'obtaining confidential information'

Photo: OdaTV

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Two journalists and a military officer have received prison sentences for obtaining and disclosing "confidential information" in a case concerning the officer's phone conversations with the journalists.

Müyesser Yıldız, the news manager at Odatv news site's Ankara office, has been sentenced to 1 year, 1 month and 10 days in prison for "obtaining confidential information" and to 2 years and 6 months in prison for "disclosing confidential information."

She had been remanded in custody for 155 days until her release after the hearing on November 9.

İsmail Dükel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 TV has been sentenced to 1 year and 15 days and Noncommissioned Officer Erdal Baran has been sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison for "obtaining confidential information."

The court deferred the sentences of Yıldız and Dükel and ruled that Baran, who had been remanded in custody, should be released.

The defendants, their attorneys, and the Turkey representative of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Erol Önderoğlu, attended the hearing at the Ankara 26th Heavy Penal Court.

Turkish Penal Code Article 329 - Disclosure of Information Relating to the Security and Political Interests of the State

(1) Any person who discloses information that, due to its nature, must be kept confidential for reasons relating to the security, or domestic or foreign political interests of the State shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of five to ten years.

(3) If the act has been the result of recklessness on the part of the offender, the offender shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to two years in circumstances described in paragraph one and for a term of three to eight years in any of the circumstances described in paragraph two.

What happened?

Yıldız, the Ankara news director of OdaTV news site, İsmail Dükel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 TV, and Noncommissioned Officer Erdal Baran were detained on June 8 as part of an investigation about "military espionage."

Sending a message via her attorney while she was still in detention, Müyesser Yıldız said, "The essence and center of this operation are, unfortunately, me. Some people are really afraid that behind the scenes of July 15 [coup attempt in 2016] will be questioned and they are trying to prevent this from happening. That is why they seized my computers without image acquisition again. So, there must be something they fear."

While Dükel was released four days later, Yıldız and Baran were remanded in custody. The charge against the three people was changed to "disclosing confidential information."

Yıldız was sent behind bars over two articles about Turkey's military and intelligence operations in Libya, which was also the subject of the tapped phone conversation between her and the officer.

However, she said in the hearing that the articles had been online for nearly six months and were based on not her conversation with Baran but on open sources. (HA/VK)