A Turkish court has ordered the release of journalist Fatih Altayli, who is being held for allegedly threatening President Erdogan, with the trial sparking a wave of international attention.
A court in Istanbul, Turkey, ordered the release of journalist Fatih Altayli during an appeal against threats and comments about the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the AFP and DPA agencies.
According to the court, there is no risk of his escape and in this case a sufficient amount of evidence has already been collected. Altayli is an influential Turkish journalist, commentator and former TV presenter.
He was arrested in June for commenting on the YouTube platform about a poll showing that 70 percent of Turks do not support Erdogan’s life as president.
“Look at the history of this country,” he commented on the survey results. “This nation strangled their sultan when they didn’t like him or didn’t want him. There are enough Ottoman sultans who were murdered, strangled, or whose death looked like suicide,” he said.
Punishment for statements
In November, the journalist was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for “threats to attack Erdogan’s life”. Altayli called it absurd. “Why should the president be afraid of me? I am not a member of any organization. I have never resorted to violence,” he said.
Opponents of the Turkish president considered the trial and verdict a politically motivated act aimed at silencing a critical journalist.
More than 2.7 million people follow Altayli on the X social network and more than 1.7 million on the YouTube platform. The 63-year-old journalist has spent six months in custody so far.
