(New York, NY) – In response to a Turkish court’s decision to reverse a ruling granting provisional release to writer and journalist Ahmet Altan, Karin Karlekar, PEN America’s director of Free Expression at Risk Programs, issued the following statement.
“The re-arrest of Ahmet Altan just days after his release is a disgrace and a horror. A writer, a journalist, and an academic, Ahmet should never have been imprisoned to begin with; he has committed no crime. His release last week after more than three years in detention was a cause for hopeful celebration, but today we are faced again with the cruelty of a justice system that no longer upholds the rule of law. PEN America condemns this action and calls once again for Ahmet’s immediate release.”
Altan is a prominent Turkish journalist and novelist who was arrested alongside his brother in September 2016. They were wrongly charged with encouraging a failed coup in Turkey earlier that summer. Altan had been released November 4, but on Tuesday, an arrest warrant was issued.
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