ISTANBUL (AA) – Two more suspects in last week’s attempted shooting of Turkish journalist Can Dundar were arrested Monday, a security official said.
The arrests bring the total number of those detained in connection with the attack on Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, to five, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.
The arrests came as a result of investigation into the telephone records of the attacker. The five suspects, including alleged gunman Murat S., are expected to appear in court Tuesday.
Dundar was attacked outside Istanbul’s Caglayan court on Friday, before he was sentenced to five years and 10 months imprisonment for revealing state secrets. The newspaper’s Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul was sentenced to five years. Both men are currently free awaiting an appeal hearing.
TV footage showed a gunman firing shots before being pulled away by an onlooker and Dundar’s wife and being overpowered by police officers. A TV news reporter, Yagiz Senkal, was slightly injured in the leg during the incident.
Dundar and Gul were tried following the publication of images purporting to show arms being transported to Syria in trucks belonging to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
The case is linked to searches carried out on MIT trucks on two occasions in January 2014. In May last year, Cumhuriyet ran a story and images claiming to show the discovery of arms in the Syria-bound trucks.
The two defendants were arrested late last November and held in prison until Feb. 26, when Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled that their rights had been violated and ordered their release.
