Two more suspects detained in Istanbul over gun attack on Dündar

The detention of the two suspects by Istanbul police on May 9 resulted from the investigation into the phone records of Murat Şahin, who carried out the attack. 

The five suspects, including Şahin, are expected to appear in court on May 10 after their detention period was extended for another 24 hours. 

More detentions in relation to the attack are also expected.

Şahin had approached Dündar as he was speaking to reporters during a break in the hearing, in which he was tried on charges of revealing state secrets. Şahin fired two shots at Dündar’s legs, saying, “You are a traitor.” 
He was later detained while Dündar was uninjured, though Yağız Şenkal, a reporter for private broadcaster NTV, was wounded in the leg.

Following the attack, Dündar, the editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gül, the paper’s Ankara bureau chief, were convicted by an Istanbul court and sentenced to five years and 10 months and five years in prison, respectively.        

The journalists were on trial for “leaking state secrets” due to stories published about Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria with hidden weapons in early 2014. They were arrested on Nov. 26, 2015 and released on Feb. 26 following a Constitutional Court ruling.

The 14th High Criminal Court acquitted Dündar and Gül of charges of attempting to overthrow the government, while ordering that the charges of “knowingly and willfully” assisting a terrorist organization be separated from the trial.