5 opposition newspaper staff released from Turkish prison – report

Five jailed journalists and staff members of the opposition Turkish Cumhuriyet newspaper have been freed on the orders of an appeals court, according to a state-run news agency.

Cartoonist Musa Kart and four other Cumhuriyet employees were released from their prison in northwest Turkey late on Thursday, Anadolu said.

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. Turkey blames Gulen for a failed coup in 2016.

Cumhuriyet is one of the few newspapers critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some 130 journalists remain jailed in the country, AP said.