Turkey: 5 Opposition Newspaper Staff Released From Prison

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

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.



Italy Says No US Extradition Request for Detained Iranian Businessman So Far

A seagull stands in front of an Italian flag flying at half-mast on the Altare della Patri-Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. (AFP Photo)
A seagull stands in front of an Italian flag flying at half-mast on the Altare della Patri-Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. (AFP Photo)
TT

Italy Says No US Extradition Request for Detained Iranian Businessman So Far

A seagull stands in front of an Italian flag flying at half-mast on the Altare della Patri-Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. (AFP Photo)
A seagull stands in front of an Italian flag flying at half-mast on the Altare della Patri-Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. (AFP Photo)

The United States has not submitted any formal request of extradition for an Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini detained in Milan, Italy's justice minister said in an interview published on Thursday.
"The matter of Abedini is purely legal ... regardless of the (freeing of Italian journalist) Cecilia Sala. It is premature to talk of extradition, also because no formal request has been sent to our ministry so far," Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told daily La Stampa.
Abedini is wanted by the United States on suspicion of involvement in a drone strike against US forces in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement and said last week the detention of the Iranian national amounted to hostage-taking.
His arrest has been linked to the detention three days later of Italian reporter Cecilia Sala, who was seized in Tehran on Dec. 19 while working under a regular journalistic visa and freed on Jan. 8.