01 December 2015•Update: 01 December 2015
ISTANBUL
The appeals against detention by journalists from Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper were rejected by a court in Istanbul on Tuesday.
The Istanbul Eighth Court of Peace ruled the detention of the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Can Dundar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gul was “proportional” to a potential jail term and the evidence against them.
On Monday, a lower court said there was “no unlawful aspect” to their detention before referring the decision to a higher court.
Dundar and Gul were arrested on Nov. 26 over the publication of photographs and video footage purportedly showing shells and ammunition loaded on Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
They have been charged with espionage and supporting terrorism and face life in prison if convicted.
The MIT trucks were stopped in January 2014 in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana. At the time, the government said the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Syria’s Turkmen community.
The images revealed by Cumhuriyet in May 2015 showed weaponry stacked under boxes containing medicine.
