Interpol says no new red notice request from Turkey on exiled journalist Can Dündar

An official from Interpol has said that the organization had rejected Turkey's previous request demanding a red notice issuance for exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar. The official also said that Turkey has not filed a new application as of June 9. The comments came a day after an Istanbul court requested that Ankara ask Interpol to issue a red notice for Dündar on espionage and terrorism charges that stem from his 2015 reporting in the daily Cumhuriyet.

Tuesday June 08 2021 07:04 pm

Duvar English

An official from Interpol has said that they have not yet received a new application from Turkey demanding the issuance of a red notice for exiled Turkish journalist Can Dündar.

The official said that Turkey's previous application for Dündar had been rejected.

“The Interpol General Secretary had rejected the red notice request received previously for Can Dündar. There is no fresh red notice request conveyed to Interpol as of June 9. When the new request is received, this will be analyzed by a special unit, which reviews all of Turkey's red notice requests within the framework of the institution's rules,” the official told Euronews' Turkish service on June 9.

The remarks came a day after the Istanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court once again issued an arrest warrant and requested that the government ask Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of Dündar on espionage and terrorism charges.

Dündar commented on the court's move, saying that Interpol does not “take any of Ankara's applications seriously.”

“Red notice can be issued only by Interpol. Courts can only request from the Justice Ministry that it apply to Interpol for the issuance of a red notice. And since Interpol knows that the real purpose is to silence opponents, it does not take any of Ankara's applications seriously,” Dündar tweeted.

#Kırmızıbülten, ancak İnterpol tarafından çıkarılabiliyor.
Mahkemeler sadece Adalet Bakanlığı’ndan İnterpol’e başvurup kırmızı bülten çıkarmasını isteyebiliyor.
Ve İnterpol, asıl amacın muhalifleri susturmak olduğunu bildiği için, Ankara’nın hiçbir başvurusunu ciddiye almıyor.+ https://t.co/pxKVdmWr7J
— Can Dündar (@candundaradasi) June 8, 2021

In December 2020, Dündar, currently living in Germany, was sentenced to 27 years and six months in prison on charges of "political and military espionage" and "aiding a terrorist organization."

Dündar was handed 18 years and nine months in prison for "obtaining state secrets for the purpose of political or military espionage" and another eight years and nine months for "aiding an armed terrorist organization."

Dündar, the former editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, was tried over a 2015 report on Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks filled with weapons bound for Syria. The report said that Turkey was sending weapons to Syrian jihadists and provided footage of the trucks being searched by security forces in the southern province of Adana.