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Turkey detains chairman of opposition Cumhuriyet daily, paper says

ISTANBUL -- Turkish police detained the chairman of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet at Istanbul's main airport on Friday, less than a week after nine of its executives and journalists were formally arrested, the paper said.

 

Authorities had ordered the paper's editor and senior staff be held in jail pending trial over the secularist newspaper's alleged support for a coup attempt on July 15.

 

Chairman Akin Atalay was detained at the city's Ataturk Airport on his return from Germany after an arrest warrant was issued for him, Cumhuriyet said.

 

Cumhuriyet's previous editor, Can Dundar, was jailed last year for publishing state secrets involving Turkey's support for Syrian rebels. He was later released and is now overseas to avoid arrest.

 

State-run media said on Thursday prosecutors were seeking life sentences for nine staff of pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, including prize-winning novelist Asli Erdogan, on a charge of membership of a terrorist organisation.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.11.16, 13:47