Turkey: Five journalists sentenced to prison for revealing death of two officers in Libya

The Criminal Chamber of the Turkish Regional Court of Justice in Istanbul decided to uphold a previous prison sentence of five journalists accused of revealing state secrets during their coverage of the news of the killing of two Turkish intelligence officers in Libya.

The court upheld the prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months for Aydin Keser, Ferhat Celik and Murat Ağırl, as a punishment for disclosing information and documents related to intelligence activities, and upheld the prison sentence of 3 years and 9 months for Barış Pehlivan and Helia Kılınc on the same charge.

Barış Terkoğlu commented by saying that the ruling represents the image of patriotism and betrayal of the country inverted thanks to the authority, while Barış Pehlivan described the ruling by saying that a political process has been implemented, and that journalists cannot be prevented from writing the truth.

For his part, Murat said that the ruling came because of a message he shared with a Turkish officer who was killed in Libya, demanding not to be silent or fearful and not to be attacked for reacting, as he described it.