Court Orders Release of Journalist Hüseyin Aykol

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Journalist Hüseyin Aykol has been oredered to be released upon an application by his attorney.

The former co-editor-in-chief of the daily Özgür Gündem, which was shut down upon a statutory decree, was arrested after being sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison on July 12.

After the judicial reform package came into effect yesterday (October 24), Özcan Kılıç, an attorney of Aykol, applied for his release. He requested the suspension of the execution of the sentence in an application to İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court. The court ordered the journalist to be released as the judicial reform opened the way for his retrial.

Kılıç told bianet than he was informed of the order verbally but the written order has not reached them yet. He added that Aykol might be released at night.

What happened?

Hüseyin Aykol, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed as per the Statutory Decree no. 675 in October 2016 during the State of Emergency, was arrested on July 11, 2019. Taken into custody at his house in Ankara earlier in the day, Aykol was previously sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison.

In his final hearing at the İstanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court on November 29, 2018, Aykol was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having participated in the Editors-in-Chief-on-Watch campaign together with Ayşe Düzkan, Mehmet Ali Çelebi, Hüseyin Bektaş and Ragıp Duran. His file was previously combined with the others as he also participated in the campaign. With his prison sentence upheld by the court of appeal, Aykol was sent to the Sincan Type F No 2 Prison in Ankara. There are currently 63 lawsuits filed against Hüseyin Aykol and some of these lawsuits are still continuing at the court of appeal.

About Hüseyin Aykol

Born in 1952, Hüseyin Aykol studied at the Medical School of Ankara University for three years and at the Faculty of Political Science of the same university for four years. Before the military coup on September 12, 1980, he worked as a translator and editor for the Ser Publishing and became a member to the Writers Union of Turkey (TYS). Published in around 40 countries, Socialism: Theory and Practice journal's Turkey edition was published by Hüseyin Aykol. Serving almost 10 years in prison in the post-coup period, he returned to journalism and publishing. In the last 20 years, he has worked for a series of newspapers, including Özgür Ülke, Özgür Gündem, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi and Yeni Yaşam.

(RT/VK)