A Turkish journalist pursued by the country's president Erdogan has come out in support of the Catalan political prisoners. Can Dündar, editor of centre-left newspaper Cumhuriyet made a retweet of a message from exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, adding the classic anti-fascist resistance message "They shall not pass", to signal his support for the Catalan pro-independence leaders, currently jailed preventively and the subject of demands for heavy prison sentences from Spain's public prosecutors.
In May 2016, Can Dündar was sentenced to 15 to 20 years prison by the Turkish Supreme Court for "espionage" after his newspaper published images showing arms deliveries from Turkey to Syria. Later that year, Dündar went into exile in Europe while Turkey has continued to seek his arrest. At present, Turkish authorities are preventing the journalist's wife from leaving the country.