Ahmet Şık arrested

Istanbul Security Branch teams arrested Ahmet Şık at his home this morning at the instructions of Istanbul Republic Chief Prosecution. Şık, having been taken for a health check, was brought to Istanbul Police Headquarters on Vatan Street. Şık, whose procedures there are continuing, is expected to be brought to the court complex in the afternoon.

With Ahmet Şık unaware of the reason for his arrest, the Anadolu Agency has given it: These are the charges levelled against Ahmet Şık!

The AKP’s official agency, the Anadolu Agency, has leaked the accusations levelled against the arrested journalist Ahmet Şık, of which Şık has no knowledge.

AA asserts that Şık stands charged of ‘publicly denigrating the Republic of Turkey, its judicial organs and military and police organisation’ and ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organisation’.
The report supplied by the agency also contains Ahmet Şık’s tweets and reports that are alleged to constitute ‘offences’:

‘With the government and its lackeys striving to prove that the assassin was a FETÖist and not a Nusraist, what are you going to do about the fact that the assassin was a policeman?’, ‘If you say the murderer was the state you become degenerate’, ‘The name of the situation that calls for war in government circles has now become known. This is the final full stop that will be placed on regime change’, ‘There has been war since 1984, even if there have been intervening interruptions, with the PKK in a certain region of the country’, ‘Rather than comparing those who were burnt in the cellars of houses in Cizre with those blown to bits by bombs in Istanbul, object to both’, ‘If the act Sırrı Süreyya Önder is accused of is a crime, should the ranks of the accused not be fuller, starting with the resident of the palace’, ‘They preferred to slaughter Tahir Elçi rather than detain him – you are a mafia-like horde of killers’, ‘Are those who try to prove that the PYD, which the USA and EU call their ally against jihadist terror, is a terrorist organisation no normal suspects?’

Şık is alleged to have committed the offences of ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organisation’ and ‘publicly denigrating the Republic of Turkey, its judicial organs and military and police organisation’ with his interview with Cemil Bayık under the headline ‘Either Apo comes to Kandil or we go to İmralı’ that appeared on Cumhuriyet newspaper’s website on 14 March 2015, the article with the headline ‘If ours is journalism yours is treason’ of 8 July 2015, the article with the headline ‘The intelligence agency’s lorries prosecutor: The intelligence agency turned a blind eye towards Reyhanlı – If we had not informed them we would have prevented it’ of 9 July 2015, and the article with the headline ‘The secret in the lorries has been revealed’ of 13 February 2015 along with his comments, ‘Those working for the PKK are also journalists’ at the press freedom workshop held on Heybeli Island in conjunction with the European Parliament on 23-26 September 2014.

The CHP’s Barış Yarkadaş has spoken to Ahmet Şık!

CHP Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş has spoken to arrestee Ahmet Şık. Yarkadaş, saying that Şık had been taken to Haseki Hospital, said ‘From what Ahmet Şık has conveyed to me, an investigation has been launched into him due to a tweet that he posted... Ahmet spoke not long ago about the attempt to hatch a plot against him. I hope that this investigation will not prove Ahmet’s concerns to have been correct...We are monitoring things.’

HE WAS ALSO TARGETED IN THE CONTRIVED INVESTIGATION AGAINST ODATV

Ahmet Şık was remanded in custody in 2011 in the Gulenists’ contrived investigation launched into Odatv. Şık, who was detained after having written a book about the Gülen Brotherhood, shouted out at the time of his arrest, ‘Touch them and you’ll get burnt.’ The Prime-Minister of the day, Erdoğan, for his part, defended the remand order saying, ‘Some books are more dangerous than bombs’ with reference to Ahmet Şık’s book that was seized prior to being printed.

Ahmet Şık, who was released after spending one year on remand in the Odatv case, has continued to criticise both FETÖ and the AKP following his release and said of the dispute between the Gulenists and the AKP, ‘The AKP are thieves and the Gulenists are a gang.’ At the final hearing of the Odatv trial held in recent days in which Ahmet Şık also stands accused, the public prosecutor called for all of the defendants’ release. The hearing has been adjourned to February as Ahmet Şık and Yalçın Küçük applied for extra time to prepare their defence.