ISTANBUL: A Turkish scientist was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Thursday for revealing the cancer risks posed by toxic pollution in western Turkey.
The court in Istanbul found Dr. Bulent Sik guilty of “disclosing classified information” — a verdict described as a “travesty of justice” by Amnesty International.
Dr. Sik last year revealed the results of a study carried out with other scientists for the Ministry of Health between 2011 and 2015 linking the toxicity in soil, water and food to high rates of cancer in several western provinces.
He wrote the articles for newspaper Cumhuriyet after realizing the government was not acting on the study’s findings.
The study “clearly revealed the extent to which water resources were contiminated by toxic materials,” Dr. Sik told reporters after the verdict.
“The court ruling shows that the results of a study that directly concerns public health can be hidden. This is unacceptable,” he added.
Dr. Sik remained free on Thursday pending appeal.
Rights groups and environmentalists accuse the government of failing to enforce environmental regulations amid a rapid industrial boom in many parts of the country.
Pollution from the industrial zone of Dilovasi, around 80 kilometers from Istanbul and home to many chemical and metallurgy factories, was singled out in the report for having cancer rates well above the international average.
“The case against Bulent Sik has been, from the start, a travesty of justice,” Amnesty’s Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner told AFP.
“Instead of pursuing a whistleblower through the court, the Turkish authorities should be investigating this important public health issue.”
Amnesty said it would consider Dr. Sik a prisoner of conscience if he was jailed.
Turkey has seen a wide-ranging crackdown on many aspects of free speech, especially since a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
Dr. Sik had faced up to 12 years in prison, but the court found him not guilty of “obtaining classified information.”
Turkey doctor gets 15 months for revealing pollution cancer risk
Turkey doctor gets 15 months for revealing pollution cancer risk
- The court in Istanbul found Dr. Bulent Sik guilty of “disclosing classified information” — a verdict described as a “travesty of justice” by Amnesty International
- Dr. Sik last year revealed the results of a study carried out with other scientists for the Ministry of Health between 2011 and 2015 linking the toxicity in soil
Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe
RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.
Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.
