The private apartments of two journalists from the Turkish newspaper “Sabah” are said to have been searched in Hesse. Turkey speaks of two arrests and accuses Germany of intimidating the Turkish press.
After a search of journalists from the Turkish newspaper “Sabah” in Hesse, Turkey summoned the German ambassador. This was announced by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. The background to this was “the unfounded arrest of representatives of the Frankfurt office of the Sabah newspaper by the German police,” the statement said.
The competent public prosecutor told the German Press Agency, however, that there had been no arrests. In a statement, it was also said that the public prosecutor’s office in Darmstadt and the police had searched the private apartments of two 46 and 51-year-old journalists in Mörfelden-Walldorf in southern Hesse on Wednesday morning.
Türkiye accuses journalist
According to the investigators, there is a suspicion of “dangerous dissemination of personal data”, as regulated in Section 126a of the Criminal Code. Storage media and other evidence were secured during the operation. The investigators did not want to give any further details because of the ongoing process.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry wrote in the statement that the journalists had fallen victim to an unfounded complaint by a member of the Gülen organization. Turkey sees the so-called Gülen movement behind the attempted coup in July 2016 and lists it as a terrorist organization. She also linked the incident to Sunday’s parliamentary and presidential elections. The fact that the action took place immediately after the first round of the election was a “deliberate act”.
DJV demands quick clarification
The German Association of Journalists calls on the security authorities to immediately provide information about the searches. The authorities would have to clarify quickly and comprehensively what exactly they accuse the “Sabah” journalists of. Transparency is the only effective remedy against the allegations from Turkey.
In the presidential elections in Turkey on Sunday, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan narrowly missed out on an absolute majority and has to face the runner-up, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in a run-off on May 28.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
