Turkey: 5 Opposition Newspaper Staff Released From Prison

Photo: Ozan Kose © AFP
Photo: Ozan Kose © AFP
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Turkey: 5 Opposition Newspaper Staff Released From Prison

Photo: Ozan Kose © AFP
Photo: Ozan Kose © AFP

Turkey's state-run news agency says five jailed journalists and staff members of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper have been freed on the orders of an appeals court.

Anadolu Agency said cartoonist Musa Kart and four other Cumhuriyet employees were released from their prison in northwest Turkey late on Thursday.

The journalists were convicted on terror-related charges, accused of supporting terror groups, including the Kurdistan Workers Party, the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front and the network led-by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016.

Cumhuriyet is one of the few newspapers critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the case against its employees increased concerns over press freedom in Turkey.

Some 130 journalists remain jailed in the country.



Two Dead in Attacks on Either Side of Ukraine-Russia Border

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows a damaged private building following a drone attack in Kyiv's area, Ukraine, 03 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows a damaged private building following a drone attack in Kyiv's area, Ukraine, 03 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
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Two Dead in Attacks on Either Side of Ukraine-Russia Border

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows a damaged private building following a drone attack in Kyiv's area, Ukraine, 03 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows a damaged private building following a drone attack in Kyiv's area, Ukraine, 03 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT

Attacks on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border killed two people on Friday, local officials said.
Three missiles hit a residential area near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, killing one person, injuring four and destroying two houses, they said. A picture posted by the regional governor showed the shattered facade of a private home.
In southern Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold swathes of territory five months after a mass incursion, a man walking down a road was killed in a drone strike, Reuters quoted the regional governor as saying.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it had carried out a high-precision strike on a Russian command post in Kursk region. Russia's military said it had downed four Ukrainian missiles.
Russia says it has recaptured much of the territory seized by Ukrainian forces after they poured over the border into Kursk region in August.