Hatay 1st High Criminal Court ordered the release of Hasan Kabakulak, a journalist at Yurt newspaper who has been arrested for 20 months for charges related to being a spy of Syrian regime and aiding the abduction of a dissident lawyer.
At the hearing on October 1, the court also ordered the released of 2 other defendants who has been linked for the abduction of pro-Free Syrian Army (FSA) Musa Ahmad Emhan.
The arrest term for the remaining 3 defendants of 6, however, has been prolonged.
Released after 20 months
In the hearing, Mürsel Almaz, one of the defendants, pleaded guilty on working for intelligence and security organizations previously. He further claimed that the blasts in Cilvegözü and Reyhanlı were orchestrated by an allegedly MIT [Turkey’s intelligence agency] member Heysem Topalca and his team.
Apart from Yurt newspaper, Kabakulak is also affiliated with Hatay’s Asi newspaper and Syrian State Television.
He was arrested by a vacation court in Adana under the suspicion that he was “acquiring political and military intelligence that must stay confidential within the state”. His trial is underway.
Some of Kabakulak’s articles for Yurt newspaper were entitled as follows:, “FSA hospital in Hatay”, “What is a British ambulance doing in Hatay?”, “Jihadists prep for their plots in Turkey”. (EÖ/BM).
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
