Police raid house of former Cumhuriyet editor in-chief Can Dündar

ISTANBUL

AP Photo

Istanbul police raided the house of Can Dündar in the Çengelköy neighborhood of Istanbul, the former editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, as part of an operation against the newspaper on Oct. 31.

Police could not find anyone at home, but Can Dündar’s wife, Dilek Dündar, flew from İzmir to Istanbul to open the house to police.

The police search was completed at noon on Oct. 31. 

Former NTV and imc TV journalist Banu Güven also came to provide support to Dilek Dündar.

The raid came amid the detentions of at least 12 Cumhuriyet journalists and executives on charges that the suspects were “committing crimes on behalf of the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) even if the newspaper was not a member in them.” 

Judicial authorities also issued a warrant for Can Dündar, a former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet who became a bête noir for the government by printing a story about how Turkey’s intelligence agency was allegedly sending weapons to Syria. Dündar was sentenced to five years in jail for a story on the arms transfer on the same day that he survived an assassination attempt outside an Istanbul courthouse. Dündar left the country during the appeals process, but Dilek Dündar was subsequently prevented from going to visit him when Turkish authorities revoked her passport.

An Istanbul court has also accepted an indictment against Dündar on charges of “printing and publishing terrorist organizations’ statements” during a one-day editorial stint undertaken in solidarity with the now-closed daily Özgür Gündem.

He said last month that he would not surrender himself to Turkish courts because he had lost faith in the judiciary after the failed July 15 coup and the subsequent state of emergency declared by the government.