2 Journalists Face 45 Years in Prison Each For Reporting on Syrian Border

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Hatay 2nd Assize Court has accepted the indictment for journalists of now-closed Dicle News Agency (dihaber), Erdoğan Alayumat and Nuri Akman. dihaber was closed through the Statutory Decree No. 675 issued under the State of Emergency on October 30, 2016.

Alayuma and Akman were taken into custody on July 13, 2017 in Turkey's southeastern province of Hatay that is located on the Syrian border. After being kept in detention for two weeks, Alayumat was arrested on July 27 and Akman was released on probation pending trial by Hatay 2nd Assize court.

The journalists face 45 years in prison each and are being charged with "spying" and "being a member of an illegal organization" despite having informed, that all the reports and photographs they had taken, were served to news agencies.

The indictment prepared by Hatay Chief Public Prosecutor Tacettin Pınar accuses the journalists of "acquiring confidential information of the state for political purposes of political or military spying" and "being a member of a terrorist organization".

As criminal evidence, the prosecutor's office pointed to the journalists' reports they made on on the Syrian border. The report of the journalists entitled "MİT (National Intelligence Agency) headquarters provide shipments at nights and training in the mornings" as well as photographs in the report that were included in the indictment as crime evidence.

The journalists are being held responsible for "raising support for terror among the people, encouraging people to support illegal organizations and its armed structure, providing that the illegal organization and its actions are considered legitimate, creating pressure on politics and the elections as well as increasing the pressure of the illegal organization on the people in the region". (EKN/DG)