Turkish court releases 3 newspaper staffers

Istanbul’s 23rd High Penal Court ordered the release of prominent novelist Asli Erdogan, linguist Necmiye Alpay, and Bilir Kaya, according to Anadolu Agency.

The court decided to extend the detention of defendant Inan Kizilkaya.

Daily newspaper Ozgur Gundem was closed in August on charges of acting as a media organ of the terrorist organization PKK and spreading terrorist propaganda.

The Istanbul court had accepted a prosecutor’s indictment of nine suspects, including the paper’s Editor-in-Chief Bilir Kaya, Editor Inan Kizilkaya, Advisory Board member Asli Erdogan, and writer Necmiye Alpay.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU – resumed its armed campaign in July 2015 and has been responsible for the deaths of around 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children, since then.

More than 10,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in the same period.