Two Syrian journalists sentenced in Turkey to over six years in jail

Two Syrian journalists have been sentenced in Turkey to six years and a month in jail on charges of spreading false news, and inciting against the Turkish state and spreading hate.

Alaa Farhat and Ahmed Rihawi have yet to be imprisoned and have appealed the verdict, said Absi Smeisem, Syria correspondent for The New Arab's Arabic-language edition al-Araby al-Jadeed.

The jail sentences come after an interview conducted by Rihawi earlier this year for Syrian broadcaster Orient, a channel Farhat managed.

While speaking with Turkish analyst Oktay Yilmaz, host Rihawi stated a figure regarding Syrians allegedly killed at the border by Turkish forces. This was considered offensive to the Turkish state and military, Smeisem said.

Rihawi asked the analyst about the gendarmerie allegedly "killing three Syrians and torturing six others in a brutal way", The New Arab's sister Lebanese news website al-Modon reported.

It prompted an argument, with video footage showing Yilmaz confronting Rihawi, as the host kept asking the guest to leave the studio.

"Who are you to accuse the Turkish state of murder? You sit in our country and eat from it, then slander us?" Yilmaz said to the presenter.

Pro-Syrian opposition channel Orient TV used to broadcast from Turkey. The New Arab reported in March that the station was based in the UAE.

But Orient announced its closure last month, saying it had "exhausted all appropriate options to continue its work".

Its statement did not specify why it was closing, but it said the channel faces a "different circumstance" today, related to the "categorical impossibility of its continuation".