Driver faces up to 6 years in jail for US-Lebanese reporter’s death

ŞANLIURFA - Anadolu Agency

An indictment on a traffic accident in which a Lebanese-American reporter was killed near Turkey’s border with Syria has been completed, with the prosecutor demanding the driver of a heavy vehicle be sentenced to between two to six years in prison on manslaughter charges.

Serena Shim, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen of Lebanese origin, was killed and cameraman Judy Irish was injured when their car collided with a concrete mixer Oct. 19 in Suruç in the province of Şanlıurfa. The journalists were covering the clashes in Kobane for Press TV in Iran.

The driver, identified as Şükrü S., was released after being detained following the accident.

The expert report and traffic collision report both cited that the driver was not at fault for the accident, while the Suruç Public Prosecutor Office is seeking a jail term for him on manslaughter charges.

The first hearing of the trial will be conducted in March by the Suruç Criminal Court of First Instance.

Shim reportedly told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence agency had accused her of spying “probably due to some of the stories she had covered about Turkey’s stance on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] militants in Kobane” across the border from Suruç, adding that she feared being arrested.

However, Şanlıurfa Governor İzzettin Küçük denied Press TV’s claims, describing the allegations as “completely baseless.”