Ümit Özdağ, leader of the far-right and anti-refugee Victory Party (ZP), is facing a potential prison sentence of up to seven years following charges related to disclosing information about National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officers, having been accused of revealing the identities of MİT agents when he offered public condolences for their deaths, Turkish Minute reported.
Özdağ announced the legal proceedings against him on social media, expressing outrage at what he describes as an attack on his political career and freedom of expression. “The campaign to arrest Ümit Özdağ and close down the Victory Party has reached a new level,” Özdağ said in his post.
The charges stem from Özdağ’s public condolences for fallen MİT agents, whose identities had been previously exposed in various public forums. Despite a ruling from the Constitutional Court affirming that the sharing of already public information does not constitute a new violation, Özdağ is being prosecuted under accusations of “disclosing information related to national security.”
In his response Özdağ emphasized the political motives behind the charges, saying, “Even if I receive a prison sentence or a political ban, I will continue to resist the demographic assault on our beautiful country. I am committed to passing on an independent and Turkish Turkey to our children, not an occupied one as inherited from [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan.”
This case follows a precedent set by the Turkish Constitutional Court, which ruled in 2022 against six journalists who reported on the covert burial of a MİT officer killed during a mission in Libya. The court found no violation of rights in these cases, rejecting claims that the journalists’ detentions and convictions were unjust.
The journalists — Barış Pehlivan, Hülya Kılınç, Ferhat Çelik, Aydın Keser and Murat Ağırel — were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years, nine months to four years, eight months for disclosing documents related to intelligence operations.
