Sener and Sik threatened on twitter and Sik faces new investigation

A blog post by Reporters Without Borders on March 19 reported an alarming threat that they witnessed through twitter targeting the two newly released investigative journalists Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener. Reporters Without Borders expressed that they were "very disturbed by a message posted on Twitter on the night of 16 March about an alleged plot by the shadowy ultranationalist network Ergenekon to murder Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, two investigative journalists who were released conditionally on 12 March after a year in detention.

'It is not alarmist to say that these threats should be taken seriously', Reporters Without Borders said. 'The source of this Tweet, which is still unknown, needs to be investigated thoroughly. We call on the Turkish authorities to launch an investigation at once in other to shed light on this matter'.”

When he heard about this, Ahmet Sik is reported to say that should anything happen to him, it is those who are responsible for his imprisonment because of the conspiracy they built against him that would be responsible for it.

On the same day as the post by Reporters Without Borders, Sabah Daily of Turkey published the news that the Special Authority Public Chief Prosecutor Muammer Akkas launched a new investigation on Sik because of the public statements that Sik had made upon his release from the Silivri Prison on March 12. According to the news article, the allegations that Akkas held against Sik included "threatening and identifying judges and prosecutors as targets to terrorist organizations." 

Sik had said:

"Incomplete justice is not going to bring justice and democracy. About one hundred journalists are still in prison, just related to my trial there are five detainees. The issue of freedom of expression is not only a problem of journalists. There are approximately 600 students. We are going to continue the struggle. The police officers, prosecutors and judges who plotted and carried out this complot will go to prison. Justice will come when they enter this prison"

He also said it is the judges, prosecutors, and others at the service of the Gülen movement that are responsible for this conspiracy and that they act as an organization and that because of their illegal  acts, they are the ones who will eventually end up in prison. The investigation is supposedly against these statements.

To read the full post by Reporters Without Borders visit here. To reach a selection of articles on the release of Nedim, Sener visit our newsfeed from March 18. More on the release of four journalists (and more than a hundred who remain behind bars) from the Economist and the Washington Times.