ISTANBUL: A court in Istanbul has ordered the release from prison on bail of a leading Turkish journalist accused of having links to terrorist organizations.
Kadri Gursel, a columnist and editorial director at the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, was freed on Monday night after 11 months in Silivri jail in Istanbul. The court ruled that four other detained Cumhuriyet staff must remain behind bars while their trial continues.
“There is nothing to celebrate because several Cumhuriyet journalists are still facing unfair and baseless accusations,” Gursel said after his release. “Their freedoms have been taken away.”
He said he would continue his journalistic work despite difficult conditions for media freedom in Turkey.
Gursel and the other journalists are charged with having links to terrorism through their coverage of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the ultra-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), and the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric accused by Ankara of being behind last year’s coup attempt. Their trial began in July and continues on Oct. 31.
Gonenc Gurkaynak, a lawyer in Istanbul, said Gursel’s release did not mean justice in Turkey had been fully delivered.
“As a British statesman famously said, justice delayed is justice denied,” he told Arab News.
“Instead of cheering his release, we should all feel shame and be astonished for every day he spent in jail for the past year.”
Steven M. Ellis, director of advocacy and communications at the International Press Institute, where Gursel is a board member, said his release was a step forward.
“We’re extremely glad that Kadri Gursel was released, but equally disappointed our other colleagues were not,” he said.
“Monday’s proceedings, with a parade of witnesses offering irrelevant commentary instead of facts, demonstrated again how absurd this case is,” and the ruling was a further reminder of the pressure on press freedom in Turkey.
However, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says most of those imprisoned are not journalists, but terrorists. “Many of them have been involved in bombing incidents or burglary,” he said in New York last week.
With 171 journalists behind bars, Turkey ranks 155 out of 179 in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders. The Cumhuriyet trial is being closely followed by international observers and EU representatives, because Turkey has been a candidate country for the EU since 1999 and must meet accession criteria for press freedom.
Laura Batalla, secretary-general of the European Parliament Turkey Forum, said Gursel’s release was a sign of hope to other imprisoned journalists.
“Justice should be applied fairly and impartially in the trials of all those accused. The space for freedom of speech is worryingly shrinking in Turkey and it needs to be protected now more than ever,” she told Arab News.
Before Monday’s trial, pro-government newspapers Star and Aksam reported on Twitter that all the Cumhuriyet journalists would remain in prison. Both newspapers deleted the tweets, but the court lodged a criminal complaint against them.
Journalist accused of terror links freed from jail in Turkey
Journalist accused of terror links freed from jail in Turkey
Iraqi cabinet approves $4.6 billion Basrah-Haditha oil pipeline project
- Iraq’s current oil output stands at about 4 million barrels per day, oil ministry officials say
CAIRO: The Iraqi cabinet has given approval for a Basrah-Haditha oil pipeline project, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office said on Monday.
The pipeline will cost about 5.97 trillion Iraqi dinars ($4.56 billion), the statement said.
Iraq’s oil ministry said in August that the proposed pipeline would transport crude oil to the country’s central and southern regions.
Iraq’s current oil output stands at about 4 million barrels per day, oil ministry officials say. ($1 = 1,309.0000 Iraqi dinars)
Israel army says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
- Israel’s emergency service providers, Magen David Adom, reported that it had received no reports of any casualties so far
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Monday said that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Israel’s emergency service providers, Magen David Adom, reported that it had received no reports of any casualties so far.
Ceasefire between Turkiye and US-backed SDF in northern Syria holding, Pentagon says
- Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants that it outlaws and who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said on Monday a ceasefire between Turkiye and the US-backed Kurdish Syrian forces around the northern Syrian city of Manbij was holding.
Washington brokered an initial ceasefire earlier this month after fighting that broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew the rule of Bashar Assad. But on Dec. 19, a Turkish defense ministry official said there was no talk of a ceasefire deal between Ankara and the SDF.
“The ceasefire is holding in that northern part of Syria,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against Daesh militants in Syria. It is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants that it outlaws and who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Turkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups.
The US and Turkiye’s Western allies list the PKK as terrorist, but not the YPG and the SDF.
The United States has about 2,000 US troops in Syria that have been working with the SDF to fight Daesh militants and prevent a resurgence of the group, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.
Moroccan activists tried over earthquake response criticism: lawyer
- The earthquake razed tens of thousands of homes in central Morocco, including in the High Atlas mountain range, forcing families to sleep out in the open through the winter
RABAT: Four activists advocating for victims of the 2023 earthquake in Morocco appeared in court on Monday to face charges including defamation, their lawyer told AFP.
Said Ait Mahdi, the head of Al Haouz Earthquake Victims Coordination, was brought before a Marrakech court “on allegations of defamation, insult and spreading false claims intended to harm individuals privacy,” said his lawyer Mohamed Nouini.
While Ait Mahdi has been in custody for a week, the other three defendants others, who face charges of “insulting public officials,” remain free said Nouini.
The lawyer said charges came after local officials filed complaints against the activists over social media posts they deemed offensive.
Ait Mahdi’s defense filed a request for his release pending trial on January 6, said Nouini.
Al Haouz province, south of Marrakech, was the worst affected area when a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit in September 2023, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.
The earthquake razed tens of thousands of homes in central Morocco, including in the High Atlas mountain range, forcing families to sleep out in the open through the winter.
Ait Mahdi’s group has called for the acceleration of reconstruction efforts and greater support for the families affected by the earthquake.
As of early December, Moroccan authorities had issued some 57,000 reconstruction permits.
Over 35,000 houses have been completed or were underway, the government said in a statement on December 2.
Following the earthquake, the Moroccan authorities announced a five-year reconstruction plan with an estimated budget of $11.7 billion.
About $740 million of the funding was allocated to help affected families rebuild their homes, with the money to be distributed in instalments.
French ministers in Lebanon for talks month into Israel-Hezbollah truce
- Aoun has been tasked with deploying troops in the south of the country since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect
BEIRUT: France’s top diplomat and defense chief arrived on Monday in Lebanon, where a fragile truce since late November ended intense fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu met with Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun, and on Tuesday are due to visit UN peacekeepers near the Israeli border.
A Lebanese army statement on social media said that Aoun and the visiting ministers discussed “ways to strengthen cooperation relations between the armies of the two countries and to continue support for the army in light of current circumstances.”
Aoun, who is being touted as a possible candidate for Lebanon’s president, has been tasked with deploying troops in the south of the country since the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came into effect on November 27.
Lecornu said on X that he is also due to meet with a French general representing Paris “within the ceasefire monitoring mechanism.”
“Our armies are, and will remain, committed to the stability of Lebanon and the region,” he said.
The monitoring body brings together Lebanon, Israel, the United States, France and the United Nations’ UNIFIL peacekeeping mission. It is meant to support the implementation of the ceasefire and assess violations.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said it was “concerned” by “the continued destruction” carried out by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, despite the truce.
Lecornu and Barrot are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with French soldiers deployed with UNIFIL in south Lebanon.
