Turkish journalist Can Dundar, accused of obtaining classified government information for espionage, has been sentenced in absentia to more than 27 years in prison by a Turkish court, CBS News reported Thursday.
Judge Akın Gürlek also found the former editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet - who lives in exile in Germany - guilty of supporting an armed terrorist group, his legal counsel said Wednesday, calling the decision "politically motivated."
The 59-year-old editor has resided in Germany since 2016. His attorneys, who were not present during Wednesday's proceedings as a show of protest, said the court deliberations didn't conform to the rules for a fair trial. Multiple trials are in place against Dundar in Turkey. However, the German government is unlikely to extradite him.
Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister, denounced the verdict as a "hard blow against independent journalistic work in Turkey," Reuters quotes, which he labels as a basic right.
The most recent decision came on the heels of a 2015 story in Cumhuriyet, when Dundar was the chief editor. In May that year, the anti-state publication had reported on an alleged clandestine weapons shipment by the Turkish intelligence agency to Syrian insurgent organizations.
The news report disclosed that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish intelligence officials did not allow a prosecutor to carry out an inquiry into arms smuggling.
The report angered the president, who claimed the vehicles that were suspected of transporting the weapons actually carried aid to Turkmen groups in Syria and that Dundar would "pay a high price."
The weapons allegedly consisted of grenade launchers and large quantities of ammunition for machine guns and other high-powered weapons.
Authorities are in the process of seizing all of Dundar's property in Turkey. He remains defiant of the verdict.
