ISTANBUL: Turkish journalist Can Dundar was sentenced in absentia to 27 years and six months in prison for espionage and aiding an armed terrorist organisation, his lawyers said on Wednesday, calling the verdict politically motivated.
Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, and a colleague, Erdem Gul, were both sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting to show Turkish intelligence trucking weapons into Syria. They were later released pending appeal.
Now a resident of Germany, he had faced up to 35 years in jail for allegedly supporting terrorism and military or political espionage.
Dundar's lawyers refused to attend the final hearing. "We do not want to be part of a practice to legitimize a previously decided, political verdict," they said in a written statement ahead of the hearing.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas criticised the ruling as a "hard blow against independent journalistic work in Turkey" which he called a fundamental right.
"Journalism is not a crime but an indispensable service to society - even and especially when it looks critically and investigatively on the fingers of those in power," Maas told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.
For critics of President Tayyip Erdogan, Dundar has become a symbol of what they say is Turkey's sweeping crackdown on press freedom, especially since a failed coup in 2016. The government says the courts are independent and that it is responding to threats facing the country.
The court earlier this month delayed its verdict after Dundar's lawyers asked for the judges to be replaced to ensure a fair trial, a request that was rejected.
An Istanbul court had declared Dundar a fugitive and seized all his assets in Turkey.
Turkish journalist gets 27 years in absentia for espionage
https://arab.news/bshc3
Turkish journalist gets 27 years in absentia for espionage
- Dundar and a colleague were both sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison
- They were sentenced for publishing a video purporting to show Turkish intelligence trucking weapons into Syria
EU warns Meta it must open up WhatsApp to rival AI chatbots
- The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules
BRUSSELS: The EU executive on Monday told Meta to give rival chatbots access to WhatsApp after an antitrust probe found the US giant to be in breach of the bloc’s competition rules.
The European Commission said a change in Meta’s terms had “effectively” barred third-party artificial intelligence assistants from connecting to customers via the messaging platform since January.
Competition chief Teresa Ribera said the EU was “considering quickly imposing interim measures on Meta, to preserve access for competitors to WhatsApp while the investigation is ongoing, and avoid Meta’s new policy irreparably harming competition in Europe.”
The EU executive, which is in charge of competition policy, sent Meta a warning known as a “statement of objections,” a formal step in antitrust probes.
Meta now has a chance to reply and defend itself. Monday’s step does not prejudge the outcome of the probe, the commission said.
The tech giant rejected the commission’s preliminary findings.
“The facts are that there is no reason for the EU to intervene,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“There are many AI options and people can use them from app stores, operating systems, devices, websites, and industry partnerships. The commission’s logic incorrectly assumes the WhatsApp Business API is a key distribution channel for these chatbots,” the spokesperson said.
Opened in December, the EU probe marks the latest attempt by the 27-nation bloc to rein in Big Tech, many of whom are based in the United States, in the face of strong pushback by the government of US President Donald Trump.
- Meta in the firing line -
The investigation covers the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of the bloc’s 27 states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — with the exception of Italy, which opened a separate investigation into Meta in July.
The commission said that Meta is “likely to be dominant” in the EEA for consumer messaging apps, notably through WhatsApp, and accused Meta of “abusing this dominant position by refusing access” to competitors.
“We cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Ribera said in a statement.
There is no legal deadline for concluding an antitrust probe.
Meta is already under investigation under different laws in the European Union.
EU regulators are also investigating its platforms Facebook and Instagram over fears they are not doing enough to tackle the risk of social media addiction for children.
The company also appealed a 200-million-euro fine imposed last year by the commission under the online competition law, the Digital Markets Act.
That case focused on its policy asking users to choose between an ad-free subscription and a free, ad-supported service, and Brussels and Meta remain in discussions over finding an alternative that would address the EU’s concerns.
