ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the chief editor of an opposition TV channel to two years and six months in jail on a charge of spreading terrorist propaganda, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.
The Istanbul court also then ordered Merdan Yanardag’s release. He has already spent 100 days in pre-trial detention and will now remain at liberty pending an appeal against his sentence, Anadolu said.
Police detained Yanardag in June for “praising criminals” and “spreading terrorist propaganda” after he criticised the prison isolation of Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, on a television programme.
In the first court hearing of his case, Yanardag said his remarks on the television programme had been taken out of context and that he had not praised any terrorist activities.
“This ruling is not acceptable for us, even if the court ordered his release. We will appeal this ruling,” his lawyer Bilgutay Durna said.
The PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has battled the Turkish state since 1984 in an armed insurgency in which more than 30,000 people have been killed.
The group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on Sunday near government buildings in the Turkish capital Ankara. Police have detained dozens of suspects over alleged links to the PKK.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Gareth Jones)
