EU ‘intervene in Afrika case’

THE EU should intervene after a Turkish Cypriot newspaper claimed its editor and one of its journalists had been summonsed to appear before a court in Turkey, Greek Cypriot authorities have demanded.

The call came after controversial Afrika editor-in-chief Şener Levent wrote in the paper last Friday that plain clothes police officers had visited the paper the day before to notify him and reporter Ali Osman of criminal cases launched by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office over articles published in January and February.

Mr Levent said he had refused to give a statement and “rejected” any prosecution.

He added that the articles were currently the subject of legal proceedings launched against Afrika in the TRNC courts earlier this year.

The South’s Cyprus Mail quoted Greek Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou as saying this week that the matter had been referred to the EU and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A retired Turkish Cypriot public prosecutor, Derviş Akter, told Cyprus Today’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs on Monday that it was “out of the question” for TRNC citizens to be extradited to Turkey, particularly as Afrika was not “officially” distributed there.

He said that if any under crime had been committed, it would have to be tried in the TRNC and under TRNC laws.

His views were echoed by Chief Justice Narin Ferdi Şefik, who said TRNC citizens could not be deported following a court conviction in Turkey.

Andreas Kettis, head of the European Parliament Office, said on social media he had visited Mr Levent at the Afrika offices and “conveyed a personal message of solidarity” from parliamentary president Antonio Tajani that “freedom of speech and freedom of the press are fundamental EU values”.