Turkey asks Interpol to arrest journalist Can Dündar. The reporter, former editor of the prestigious Turkish newspaper ‘ Cumhuriyet ‘, has lived in exile in Germany since 2016. Dündar is sentenced to 27 years in prison in Turkey, and the Turkish prosecution has opened a new case against him in 2021.
Turkey on Tuesday requested a red circular, an arrest and extradition order, from Interpol on the Turkish journalist Can Dündar, exiled in the German capital since 2016 , after several cases were opened against him and he suffered an assassination attempt. in front of the Istanbul courthouse .
Once he escaped from Turkey, in early 2016, Dündar was tried in absentia and sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison for ” revealing state secrets , political and military espionage and aiding a terrorist organization.”
Dündar, when he was editor of the prestigious Turkish newspaper ‘ Cumhuriyet ‘ – one of the oldest in the Republic of Turkey – published an information stating that the Turkish secret services sent trucks with weapons to Syria , and that some weapons ended up in the hands of jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State .
A few weeks ago, one of the journalists who worked on that information said that Dündar made up the part that corresponded to the Islamic State – not to Al Qaeda – to give more impact to the news.
Multi-awarded
From Germany, Dündar has founded another medium ‘Özgürüz ‘ (‘We are free’), and has received numerous awards, including the Reporters Without Borders award for press freedom . In 2016 he was a finalist for the Sajárov Prize awarded by the European Parliament .
This 2021, the Turkish prosecution decided to open another case against him, in which the journalist is accused of ” knowingly helping a terrorist organization but without being a member.” During the previous trials against Dündar, the Turkish justice had already asked Germany for the journalist’s extradition. The German justice never agreed to it.
During his years in Turkey as well as in Berlin , Dündar has become a vocal figure against what he calls the “growing authoritarianism” of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . In fact, Dündar has gone so far as to accuse the EU of “losing its values” in exchange for negotiating with Erdogan so that he stops the arrival of refugees on Community territory.
