A Turkish court on Tuesday decided to seek an Interpol Red Notice for journalists Can Dündar and İlhan Tanır on charges of “terrorism,” the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Dündar and Tanır were suspects in the Cumhuriyet daily case in which the prosecutor accused some journalists at the paper of supporting terrorist groups with their reporting. Dündar and Tanır were living in exile during the trial and thus could not testify in court.
During a hearing on Tuesday, the İstanbul 27th High Criminal court approved a demand by the prosecutor to seek an Interpol Red Notice for the two journalists.
Following the court’s request Dündar tweeted: “Let me be clear on the issue. Courts cannot issue an [Interpol Red Notice], they just request them from the Justice Ministry. The ministry asks the police and the police send the request to Interpol. And Interpol puts it in the garbage because they know [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s intentions.”
The İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court on April 2 issued an arrest warrant in absentia and sought an Interpol Red Notice for Dündar, the former editor-in-chief of the critical Cumhuriyet daily, over a story he published on trucks operated by Turkish intelligence allegedly carrying weapons to radical groups in Syria.
Dündar was arrested and jailed for 92 days along with colleague Erdem Gül for publishing the story on the trucks carrying weapons to Syria in early 2014. They were arrested on Nov. 26, 2015 and released on Feb. 26, 2016 pending trial following a Constitutional Court decision.
Shortly after his release and an armed attack on him, Dündar quit his position as editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet and left Turkey.
Dündar has been living in Germany since June 2016, while İlhan Tanır continues to pursue journalism in the US, working for the Ahval news website.