Turkey: 5 opposition newspaper staff released from prison

ANKARA, Turkey – 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 U.S.-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.