Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that rights violations had occurred in the one-year-long pretrial detention of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, Turkish media reported.
The court said there were violations of freedom of the press and expression and the right to freedom in Yücel’s case.
Yücel was working as a Die Welt correspondent in Turkey when he was taken into custody by police in İstanbul on Feb. 14, 2017. A warrant for his arrest was issued a short time later on terrorism charges. By March the 44-year-old journalist was transferred to İstanbul’s maximum-security Silivri Prison and court complex.
Many press and rights advocates considered him a hostage of Turkey’s government, and his arrest led to tensions between Ankara and Berlin.
The journalist was released pending trial on Feb. 16, 2018. He left Turkey immediately and returned to Germany.
Last month, testifying before a Berlin district court as part of his ongoing trial in Turkey, Yücel said he was tortured during his detention in Turkey. He held Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally responsible for the abuse. (SCF with turkishminute.com)
