Turkey President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan says journalist Can Dundar is an "agent"

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey had the right to request the extradition from Germany of Can Dundar, former editor of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, describing him as an agent who had been convicted of espionage.

"This person is a convicted criminal according to Turkish law," Erdogan told a news conference in Berlin after talks with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Dundar and a colleague were sentenced in 2016 to five years in prison for publishing a video purporting to show Turkey's intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria. They were released pending appeal and Dundar left the country.