ISTANBUL: A Turkish court has freed three journalists and five others accused of ties to a banned Marxist group after eight years of pre-trial custody, pending an appeal in their trial, a journalists’ union said yesterday.
An Istanbul court freed the defendants under a new law passed in March reducing the detention limit for suspects on trial from 10 years to five years, the Turkish Journalists’ Union said.
Among those affected by the court ruling is Fusun Erdogan, who holds dual Turkish and Dutch citizenship and is director of Ozgur Radio, which broadcasts in Kurdish.
Erdogan, who was detained in 2006, is appealing her November sentence of life in prison along with the seven others for belonging to the banned Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.
The European Federation of Journalists yesterday said that 32 journalists were still in jail, most of them for suspected links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Turkey has long been criticised for a lack of press freedom.
AFP
