A Greek appeals court has sentenced a man who worked for a Turkish consulate to five years in prison on spying charges, legal sources said on Friday, in a case that had strained relations between the NATO allies.
Greece and Turkey have long-running issues that divide them, ranging from the divided island of Cyprus to exploration rights in the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea © Mena Today
A Greek appeals court has sentenced a man who worked for a Turkish consulate to five years in prison on spying charges, legal sources said on Friday, in a case that had strained relations between the NATO allies.
The man, a Greek national employed with the Turkish consulate on the island of Rhodes, was arrested in 2020.
He had denied any wrongdoing and Turkey's foreign ministry had condemned the arrest, saying it violated the then consular official's rights.
A second Greek national, who worked as a cook on a passenger ship operating the Rhodes-Kastelorizo line, and who was arrested at the same time, has also been sentenced to three years in prison. He had also denied any wrongdoing.
Kastelorizo is a small Greek island just off the Turkish coast.
The two had been under surveillance for months before their arrest and they were accused of photographing the movements of Greek armed forces in the Aegean Sea.
Greece and Turkey have long-running issues that divide them, ranging from the divided island of Cyprus to exploration rights in the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea.
In December, both countries agreed to reboot their relations, establishing a roadmap designed to usher in a new era of closer ties between them.
Reporting by Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou
Iran and the United States will resume nuclear talks on Friday in Turkey, Iranian and U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned that with big U.S. warships heading to Iran, bad things would probably happen if a deal could not be reached.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the issue of extraditing former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has not been discussed in recent talks between Moscow and Damascus.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that if the U.S. attacked Iran it would become a regional conflict, state media reported on Sunday, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.