Can DÜNDAR
Can Dündar, then editor of the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, continues to appeal against a lengthy prison term and is on trial on other charges (see Case Lists 2014 – 2023/2024). Dündar was detained on 26 November 2015 alongside his Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül on terrorism and espionage charges, in connection with a May 2015 story published by Cumhuriyet featuring photos and videos of Turkish intelligence agency’s trucks allegedly carrying arms to Syria. President Erdoğan filed a criminal complaint accusing them of trying to manipulate justice with fabricated material and violating confidentiality by publishing the story. Dündar and Gül were released on 26 February 2016 following a Supreme Court decision that stated that their rights and that of the press had been violated. On 23 December 2020, Dündar was sentenced in absentia to a combined total of 27 years and six months in prison. The appeal process was ongoing as of 31 December 2024.
Dündar is also accused of ‘attempting to overthrow the government’ in the ‘Gezi Park’ trial case (see Mehmet Osman Kavala entry above). Proceedings were ongoing as of 31 December 2024.
Dündar is also facing several years in prison in relation to the ‘Editors Watch’ solidarity action with Özgür Gündem daily and for posting a video about arms shipments to Islamist groups in Türkiye on his news website Özgürüz (We are free) on 1 March 2017. Hearings continued throughout 2024; proceedings were ongoing at the end of the year.
In December 2022, Dündar revealed he had been added to a database published by Türkiye’s Ministry of Interior that identifies alleged terrorists and offers rewards for their capture. In October 2024, the social media platform X blocked access to Dündar’s account in Türkiye. In total, 107 accounts were blocked, including those of several journalists and activists from Türkiye living in exile, following allegations from the authorities that they were spreading terror propaganda following the death of US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen (whom Türkiye blamed for orchestrating a failed coup attempt on 15 July 2016). The ban remained in place at the end of the year.
Can Dündar is the author of We Are Arrested: A Journalist’s Notes from a Turkish Prison, which the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain turned into a play in 2018. He currently resides in Germany, where he launched Özgürüz.