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Ankara Turkey's constitutional court on Thursday ordered the release of two prominent jailed writers after ruling their rights had been violated, in a legal first for media workers caught up in a post-coup bid crackdown. Rights campaigners hope the release of Sahin Alpay and Mehmet Altan could help dozens of other journalists arrested after the failed 2016 plot to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Alpay and Altan had been accused -- in separate cases -- of links to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says masterminded the coup attempt. Gulen denies the charges. But the Ankara-based court -- Turkey's highest constitutional legal instance -- ruled that the pair should be freed on the grounds that their rights had been violated, state media said. Six of the 11-judge panel voted in favour of their release. It is believed to be the first time that a higher Turkish court has issued such a ruling in the coup bid aftermath. Alpay, 73, is a political scientist who wrote a column for the now closed staunchly pro-Gulen Zaman newspaper. Mehmet Altan, 64, has written books on Turkish politics. (AFP)
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12/01/2018
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