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Watch: Sputnik Turkey Office After Police Search

The search was authorised by the Istanbul chief public prosecutor; it followed a Saturday attack by unidentified Turkish nationals on three Sputnik employees in Ankara.
Sputnik

A video has emerged of the situation at Sputnik’s office in Istanbul after it was searched by police.

The search took around 11 hours and stretched into the early hours of Monday morning under a warrant of the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office.

Police cloned the hard drives of 18 desktop computers and seized one original HDD because they were unable to connect to it.

Sputnik staff at the scene said they did not detect any police impropriety and the officers behaved properly. The reason for the operation remains unclear.

It came the day after groups of individuals tried to break into the homes of three Sputnik Turkey journalists in Ankara chanting pro-Turkey slogans. No one was hurt in the incident; the attackers fled the scene before the arrival of the police.

The three reporters and the head of Sputnik Turkey, Mahir Boztepe, were briefly detained on Saturday and released after questioning. Ankara police denied putting Sputnik employees in custody.

Watch: Sputnik Turkey Office After Police Search

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in a phone call to resolve the situation as swiftly as possible and demanded the journalists’ safety be ensured.

The OSCE representative on freedom of the media, as well as human rights activists and several journalist organisations in Turkey, have condemned the attack. Sputnik has appealed to the United Nations, the OSCE, UNESCO and the International Federation of Journalists to uphold freedom of the press.

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