The Turkish writer and journalist Ahmet Altan is released under conditions. According to the state-run Turkish news agency Anadolu, a court sentenced Altan to more than ten years in prison, but ordered his release at the same time. Altan receives this year's Geschwister-Scholl Prize.
Altan was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2018 for membership in the banned Gülen movement, but was acquitted again in July 2019 by the country's highest appeals court. The journalist Nazli Ilicak was also released under conditions according to the report by Anadolu. Ilicak had written in the past for the government-related newspaper "Sabah" and for the now discontinued Gülen near newspaper "Bugün".
Allegation of membership in the Gülen movement
At the beginning of October it was announced that Altan will receive this year's Geschwister-Scholl-Preis. The city of Munich and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels in Bavaria praised the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Taraf" in announcing the decision as "critical commentator on what is happening in Turkey", which speaks for all, "who stand for the truth and freedom defend".
The 69-year-old is honored for his book "I'll never see the world again", in which he talks about his experiences in prison and in court. Altan was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 2018 with his brother Mehmet Altan and journalist Ilicak for membership of the Gülen movement. They are said to have supported the coup attempt of July 2016, for which Ankara blames the Gülen movement.
The jury wrote on Altan's book that it was a "document of resistance and intellectual independence" that calmly and clearly shows "what it is for Turkey right now." The award ceremony will take place during the Literature Festival Munich on 25th November.