Eight days after his release from a Turkish prison, the writer and journalist Ahmet Altan has been arrested again. The human rights organizations Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders confirmed a report by Turkish state news agency Anadolu. On photos you can see how Altan is led away and beckons from an apparently moving car into the camera.
Earlier, a court in Istanbul ordered the arrest. The Attorney General had appealed against Altan's release from custody. The 69-year-old was reportedly arrested in his apartment on the grounds that there is a risk of absconding.
Only released on 4 November
After more than three years in prison, a Turkish court released Altan and journalist Nazli Ilicak on 4 November, subject to conditions. At the same time, the judges had reduced the sentence for the two defendants, who had originally been sentenced to life imprisonment for supporting a terrorist organization. Instead, they sentenced Altan to ten years and six months in prison, and Ilicak received a sentence of eight years and nine months. The two journalists were released on condition that they had to report regularly to the police.
The charge may relate to the so-called Gülen movement. The Turkish government blames the US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen for the July 2016 coup attempt. Altan and Ilicak were arrested shortly thereafter. Altan was editor-in-chief of the now discontinued newspaper "Taraf". Ilicak wrote in the past for the government-related newspaper "Sabah" and for the now also discontinued newspaper "Bugün", the Gülen close.
Altan was awarded the Geschwister-Scholl Prize for his book "I will never see the world again - texts from prison" this year. "Ahmet Altan's texts show in a calm, clear way what Turkey is doing right now," the jury said.