Gültekin Avcı, a former prosecutor and a columnist who was accused of plotting Iran-backed radical terror organization Tavhid-Salam al-Quds Army is released pending trial on Friday by a court in İstanbul. Avcı was in pretrial detention since August 15, 2016.
Prosecutors charged Avcı in connection with a series of columns he wrote in 2013 and 2014 for Bugün in which he alleged that the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the country’s spy agency, had links to Tawhid-Salam.
During his defenses before the court Avcı told about ill-treatment he had been subject in prison and his complaint about he could not get any response from the authorities for the petitions he wrote about the ill-treatment he was subjected in prison.
The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 176 journalists and media workers were in jail as of September 13, 2019. Of those in prison 84 were under arrest pending trial, while 92 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 167 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey