Turkey court hands down additional 5 years in Ahmet Altan case
Writer Ahmet Altan has been given an additional 5-year prison term by a Turkish court of law just two weeks after he was sentenced to life in prison for his alleged role in the 2016 failed coup.
The Istanbul court on Wednesday handed down a total of five years and 11 months for Altan's publishing "terror propaganda" and insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Anadolu news agency said.
Anadolu reported that the court explained that the description Altan portrayed of the Kurdish conflict in southeast Turkey attempted to justify the unlawful deeds of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The court also ruled the same article had insulted President Erdogan, Anadolu reported. Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey.
On February 16, Altan, his writer brother Mehmet and four other journalists were given life sentences for their alleged role in the failed coup of July 2016.
The Altan brothers were accused by court prosecutors of sending coded messages via a talk show on television a day before the coup attempt.
The verdict drew criticism from rights groups, the United Nations and other international bodies.
After the coup Ankara launched a massive crackdown on dissent with more than 50,000 people being jailed and more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.
Meanwhile, a group of prominent writers including Nobel prize winners Svetlana Alexievich, JM Coetzee and Kazuo Ishiguro published an open letter to Erdogan in The Guardian on the Altan brothers and Nazli Ilicak's case, calling for their release.
"We wish to draw your attention to the damage being done to Turkey (through) ... the unlawful detention and wrongful conviction of writers and thinkers," they said.
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