Footage shows prison guard hitting journalist Barış Pehlivan
A footage showing a prison guard hitting OdaTV's editor-in-chief Barış Pehlivan has emerged, refuting Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's earlier claims on the journalist being not subjected to mistreatment. In the footage, Pehlivan is seen in a room with the prison guard, who hits the journalist's back and leans towards him to speak.
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A footage showing a prison guard hitting OdaTV's editor-in-chief Barış Pehlivan has emerged, refuting prosecutors' earlier claims on the journalist being not subjected to mistreatment.
Pehlivan's lawyers filed a complaint against the prison guard for hitting him upon his arrival at the Silivri Prison on March 6.
The criminal complaint asked the authorities to analyze the security camera footage that recorded the incident and demanded that it be put in the file.
The prosecutors, however, said that he wasn't hit and decided for a non-prosecution. They also deemed the lawsuit a "disinformation act."
"The incident was looked into by Silivri Prison Prosecutor's Office. Following the examinations and reviews of security footage, it was concluded that Pehlivan was not battered or subjected to mistreatment, whether it be verbal or physical," Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said.
The footage shows the prison guard hitting Pehlivan's back and leaning towards him to speak.
An Istanbul court on March 6 arrested Pehlivan over a report covering the funeral of a member of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) killed in Libya.
Pehlivan is accused of disclosing the identity of the intelligence agency official even though the name had been revealed by an opposition lawmaker a week earlier.
Pehlivan is the third journalist to be arrested in the case. On March 5, OdaTV news director Barış Terkoğlu and reporter Hülya Kılınç were arrested on the same charges.
On March 8, Yeniçağ columnist Murat Ağırel, Yeni Yaşam editor-in-chief Ferhat Çelik and the daily’s news editor Aydın Keser were arrested over the same story, bringing the number of journalists arrested in the case to six.