Turkish opposition head calls on reporters to be freed

ANKARA

Turkey's Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu has called on Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to change the law to allow two journalists, on remand over terrorism charges, to be freed.

Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and its Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul were arrested on Nov. 26 over the paper’s publication of photographs and video footage purportedly showing shells and ammunition loaded on Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT).

The pair was charged with espionage and supporting terrorism; the two men face life in prison if convicted.

Speaking on Tuesday, Kilicdaroglu told a party meeting in the Turkish parliament that: "I have an appeal to Mr. Davutoglu. If you don't want the journalists to be arrested, then let them be tried without detention."

Jailing journalists was "totally unacceptable", the CHP leader said, adding: "Let's save Turkey from this disgrace."

Appeals against the detention by the two journalists were rejected by an Istanbul court on Dec. 1.

The Istanbul Eighth Court of Peace ruled the detention was "proportional" to a potential jail term and the evidence against the duo.

The MIT trucks were stopped in January 2014 in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana. At the time, the government said the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's Turkmen community.

The images published by Cumhuriyet in May 2015 showed weaponry stacked under boxes containing medicine.