Handan Kazancı
29 December 2016•Update: 29 December 2016
By Muhammed Enes Can and Murat Kaya
ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court Thursday ordered the release of some executives and writers of a Turkish newspaper closed down four months ago on charges of having links to the terrorist organization PKK.
Istanbul’s 23rd High Penal Court ordered the release of prominent novelist Asli Erdogan, linguist Necmiye Alpay, and Bilir Kaya.
The court decided to extend the detention of defendant Inan Kizilkaya.
Daily newspaper Ozgur Gundem was closed in August on charges of acting as a media organ of the terrorist organization PKK and spreading terrorist propaganda.
The Istanbul court had accepted a prosecutor’s indictment of nine suspects, including the paper’s Editor-in-Chief Bilir Kaya, Editor Inan Kizilkaya, Advisory Board member Asli Erdogan, and writer Necmiye Alpay.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU – resumed its armed campaign in July 2015 and has been responsible for the deaths of around 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children, since then.
More than 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in the same period.
