Scribes to share same prison ward

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) İzmir deputy and journalist Mustafa Balbay and journalist Tuncay Özkan, two suspects arrested as part of the Ergenekon case, were ordered to be put in the same ward at Silivri Prison.

The daughter of Özkan, Nazlıcan Özkan, had announced the decision via Twitter.

“Now we have received news from Silivri. My father and Balbay were put in the same isolation ward so they are not alone anymore. I hope their luck for the release continues,” she wrote on her Twitter account.

Both Balbay and Özkan were previously kept alone in their respective prison wards after two fellow journalists, Barış Terkoğlu and Barış Pehlivan, who were also held in prison were released by a court decision on Sept. 14.

Tuncay Özkan has been in jail since 2008 and 2009 respectively. Both were kept alone for more than one year in Istanbul’s Silivri prison.

Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the pro-Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government by fomenting chaos in society.