Freed journalist Şık to go under new probe

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Journalist Ahmet Şık was released on March 12 2012 , after spending more than one year in prison for having alleged relations to a terrorist network.

An Istanbul prosecutor has launched an investigation into “threatening” comments uttered by journalist Ahmet Şık as he was leaving prison March 12 after having spent over a year behind bars in the ongoing OdaTV trial.

Şık is accused of threatening judges and prosecutors and depicting them as targets for terrorist organizations in the new probe, according to daily Sabah.

“The police, prosecutors and judges who set up and carried out this conspiracy will enter this prison. Justice will come when they enter here. Those men connected to religious communities and gangs will enter here,” Şık said as he was exiting Istanbul’s Silivri prison on March 12 in relation to the moves to arrest journalists and students in Turkey. Şık will be called to testify in the coming days, while prosecutor Muammer Akkaş has already requested the footage showing Şık making the remarks in question from the Istanbul Police Department, according to reports.

The case regarding OdaTV, an online news portal known for its fierce criticism of government policies, began after the police conducted a search of the website’s offices in February last year as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation. Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos in society.