Turkish authorities on Sunday have seized the passport of veteran journalist Hasan Cemal, who faces terror charges, and banned him from leaving the country, T24 reported.
Police informed Cemal that his passport was revoked on Nov. 11 as he attempted to travel to Berlin. The journalist faces nine years in prison on charges of terrorist propaganda.
The prosecutor said Cemal had supported the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a column he wrote for the T24 news website in 2015.
Cemal is known for his support for the resolution of the more than three-decade-long Kurdish conflict. He heavily criticised the government after it launched military operations in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast in 2015 following the collapse of a two-year peace process.
Tens of thousands of Turks had their passports seized with decree laws issued by the Turkish state during the country’s state of an emergency rule which came into effect after the 2016 coup attempt.
Since July 2016, Turkey has jailed 77,000 people including journalists, academics and human rights activists in a crackdown while more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sectors.