Former Zaman columnist Türköne released from prison

ANKARA

Mümtazer Türköne, a columnist for the former Zaman newspaper, who was handed a jail term of 10.5 years on charges of links to FETÖ has been released from prison after an appeals court reversed a lower court’s verdict, daily Hürriyet reported on Sept. 25.

The appeals court reversed the lower court’s verdict, citing “incomplete inspection.”

Türköne and now-defunct Zaman daily columnists Şahin Alpay, Ali Bulaç, Ahmet Turan Alkan and Mustafa Ünal were sentenced to prison sentences on charges of being members of a terror organization, FETÖ, in 2018.

The appeals court has also reversed the verdicts of Alpay and Bulaç, who were already under house arrest.

The judicial move followed an intervention by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, who called for the retrial of Türköne, whose brother Mustafa Türköne is a well-known nationalist figure.

“If there is an unfair ruling, my wish is for an immediate correction,” Bahçeli had said about Türköne’s imprisonment.