Turkish prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment sentence for two of its journalists who have been jailed on terror and espionage charges for their reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria.
According to Fox News, Istanbul prosecutor has finally completed the arraignment against Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and the paper's Ankara representative, Erdem Gul. The prosecutors are now only waiting for the court's approval before pushing through with the trial.
A look back in May, Cumhuriyet had published images of alleged Turkish trucks loaded with ammunition toward Syrian militants. This proved that there was an alleged smuggling of arms to rebels which the government denied and put to stop.
The severity of the demand intensified concerns about press freedom in the country, with EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn saying he was surprised. "Shocked by life sentences demanded... Equality (and) proportionality before the law are a must," Hahn wrote on a tweet. He also emphasized that while Turkey negotiates its EU membership, it must not forget to impose "full respect" of human rights.
Such cases faced by the two journalists - one aggravated life sentence and one ordinary life sentence - have been unusual. For Turkey, this is only done in cases that involve crimes and murder, Yahoo! News shared.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden called on Turkey's attention last week to protect its freedom of expression in conferment with the said case against the two jailed journalists. The U.S. Vice President has also shown a little gesture of meeting Can Dundar's wife to bring forward his support for the journalists who are currently facing prosecution.
Representatives of major media freedom advocacy groups made their way to Silivri prison in Istanbul where Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are imprisoned to call for their release. They also condemned Turkish authorities by disallowing visitors to see the two imprisoned journalists.
