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Turkish Court Sentences Germany-based Journalist to Jail on Terror Charges

Soldiers holding guns walk near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Soldiers holding guns walk near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga
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Turkish Court Sentences Germany-based Journalist to Jail on Terror Charges

Soldiers holding guns walk near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Soldiers holding guns walk near the Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing, in Kastanies, Greece March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Florion Goga

A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel in absentia to 2 years and 9 months to jail for terrorism propaganda, state-owned Anadolu agency said, in a case that had strained ties between Ankara and Berlin.

Yucel was released from custody in February 2018, after being kept in jail for a year without an indictment. He returned to Berlin right after his release. Yucel denies the charges against him.

He was accused of spreading propaganda in support of both Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by Ankara of plotting the 2016 failed coup, and also of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey since the 1980s.

He was also charged with inciting public enmity.

Yucel's arrest led to protracted row between Turkey and Germany, two NATO allies. Shortly after his arrest, Berlin banned Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of expatriate Turks, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Yucel a terrorist agent and Ankara accused Germany of supporting Gulen's network.

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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the US ally hand it over.

In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China.

The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory. It also underlines an expected shift in US diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.

The United States largely built the canal and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the US government fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

"It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."

The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.