(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JANUARY 27 - The Istanbul prosecutor has demanded life prison sentences be handed down to Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, the jailed editor in chief and news editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, on charges of espionage and "terrorist propaganda" for publishing an investigative report on presumed trafficking of weapons from Turkey to Syria.



The court has to approve the prosecutor's request before the trial of the two journalists begins. After the publication of the report on the eve of June elections the journalists were denounced by the Turkish secret services and by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who threatened that they would pay "a heavy price" for their reporting.



The case has fuelled protests internationally, rekindling alarm over the worsening press freedom situation in Turkey.



Dundar and Gul were arrested November 26. They then were held in solitary confinement for 40 days before being put in the same cell in Istanbul's Silivri prison.

