The Turkish government secretly investigated the family members of journalists critical of the government including their spouses and children, a document obtained by Nordic Monitor has revealed.
The secret document dated Jan. 24, 2017 reveals that a Turkish prosecutor ordered the police to investigate the parents, spouses and children of 19 critical journalists including top reporters who are currently in jail. The order was sent to the police on Dec. 19, 2016 by prosecutor Can Tuncay, who requested information be gathered on the close relatives of journalists by the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department of the Turkish National Police (KOM). The document was signed by Deputy Chief of Police Burhan Akçay of KOM.
Among the targeted journalists were Ekrem Dumanlı, former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s one-time best-selling Zaman newspaper who was forced to live in exile in the United States, and Nazlı Ilıcak, a veteran 75-year-old journalist who has been jailed since Aug. 29, 2016 on trumped up charges and was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on Feb. 16, 2018 on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. Family members of prominent novelist and journalist Ahmet Hüsrev Altan and his brother, Mehmet Hasan Altan, an economics professor and journalist, were also included on the target list. Both brothers were also given aggravated life sentences.