Turkey frees seven journalists, but many remain behind bars

Seven staff from the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet were provisionally freed on Saturday after nine months in jail, as calls intensified for the release of four journalists still behind bars.

An Istanbul court on Friday ordered that the seven be released under judicial control, meaning they remain charged and will have to report to the authorities, although it is rare in Turkey for defendants in such cases to be sent back to jail.

A total of 17 staff from the newspaper - one of the few voices in the media in Turkey to oppose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - had been on trial for aiding "terror" groups, accusations denounced as absurd by supporters.

But despite growing pressure from abroad but also within Turkey for the release of all the defendants, the most prominent journalists from the newspaper were ordered by the court to remain in jail.

The seven freed - including respected cartoonist Musa Kart, books supplement editor Turhan Gunay and the paper's legal executives - left Silviri jail on the outskirts of Istanbul to cheers and embraces from supporters. They had been held for 271 days.
"We were taken away from the people we love, our relatives, our work," said Kart after his release.

But he added: "Believe me, during this period in jail we have felt no hatred, no rancour, we could not live with such thoughts."premier
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Source: Khaleej Times