Assailant of journalist Can Dündar released by court

Murat Şahin, who was arrested for attacking Turkish journalist Can Dündar with a gun, was released pending trial on Oct. 21, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Şahin approached Dündar as he was speaking to reporters during a break in a hearing on May 6 outside Istanbul's Çağlayan Courthouse, firing two shots at Dündar's legs while shouting, "You are a traitor." 
The shots failed to hit Dündar, but one bullet did strike the leg of Yağız Şenkal, a reporter for the NTV television channel.

Şahin was subsequently detained.

Following the attack, Dündar, then the editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gül, the paper's Ankara bureau chief, were convicted by an Istanbul court and sentenced to five years and 10 months and five years in prison each.

The journalists were on trial for "leaking state secrets" due to stories published about Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria with hidden weapons in early 2014. They were arrested on Nov. 26, 2015, and released on Feb. 26 following a Constitutional Court decision.

The 14th High Criminal Court acquitted Dündar and Gül of charges of attempting to overthrow the government, while ordering that the charges of "knowingly and willfully helping a terrorist organization" be separated from the trial.