Turkey imprisons lawmaker for 25 years for revealing secrets
ISTANBUL — A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent opposition lawmaker to 25 years in prison on espionage charges, prompting an outcry from his party.
Enis Berberoglu, a 61-year-old former journalist and a member of the pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was convicted of revealing state secrets, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said.
The case stems from a May 2015 report in the Cumhuriyet newspaper suggesting Turkey’s intelligence service had smuggled weapons to Islamist rebels in Syria a year earlier — which the government denied. Berberoglu was accused of giving journalists images used in the report.
He faced a life sentence but the court reduced it for “good behaviour.” Berberoglu said justice had been “slaughtered” as he was led out of the court following the verdict.