The Cyprus journalists’ union (ESK) urged the government on Thursday to support Turkish Cypriot journalist Sener Levent and denounce Turkey for imposing a prison sentence on him.

“ESK has consistently supported and continues to support all of Sener Levent’s struggles for freedom of expression and against the occupation. Levent’s struggle is anti-occupation,” ESK-president Giorgos Frangos said.

Ankara had sentenced the journalist to two and a half years in prison in absentia after three lawsuits concerning his articles were filed against him.

One of the lawsuits imposed a one-year prison sentence and as it was not appealed within ten days of the ruling, it is now considered final and Levent is expected to appear before the general prosecutor’s office to start his jail term. North Cyprus authorities and Ankara are cooperating in the case.

“We call on the government of the Republic of Cyprus to support him as a struggling citizen of the Republic of Cyprus and to denounce Turkey for its stance towards him, attempting to make him its prisoner,” Frangos said.

The Turkish Cypriot Press Workers’ Union (Basin-Sen) in a public statement on Wednesday also condemned the arrest warrant issued by Turkey and declared their solidarity with Levent.

In its statement, the union said that deepening authoritarianism in Turkey saw media outlets being silenced, journalists arrested, and television screens blackened out.

Turkish People’s Party’s (RTK) Asim Akansoy referred to the case as a “a legal monstrosity”. He stressed that retrying Levent in Turkey for cases for which he has already been acquitted in the north’s legal system and seeking his extradition was contrary to the fundamental principles of law.

“Especially those who trumpet the claim of a ‘sovereign state’ have the responsibility to protect the rights of their ‘citizens’,” he said, adding that even thinking about extraditing Levent was a “tantamount to self-denial”.

ESK-president Frangos highlighted that Levent was not the only Turkish Cypriot journalist facing similar persecution by Ankara and the north’s administration, adding that many colleagues working in the north were considered ‘persona non grata’, some even unable to visit Turkey.

Frangos confirmed that the ESK was in regular contact with Levent and Besil-Sen.

Levent has also received jail sentences previously by Turkey for articles he has written.

In August 2024, a six-months prison sentence was handed down by an Ankara court for allegedly publicly insulting the Turkish nation.

In 2023, Turkish courts put him on trial for his article “the Kurds and us”, in he was similarly found to have insulted the Turkish president. The first sentence he received was in August 2022 for ‘offensive’ cartoons printed in his newspaper.

Previous joint initiatives by the ESK and Besil-Sen had prompted responses from both the European and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).