Court releases arrested writer in Turkey

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has ordered the release of writer Murat Özyaşar, who was detained on Oct. 1 at his house. 

Özyaşar, a renowned writer of short stories who received two prestigious awards in 2008 and 2009, was freed on Oct. 7, his wife, Sibel Oral, announced.

“Murat called me, he is released,” wrote Oral from her Twitter account.

According to Oral, who is also a writer and an editor of the K24 website, the door of their Istanbul apartment flat rang at 5 a.m. on Oct. 1. She was awake at that time to breastfeed their baby girl, to whom she had given birth just 21 days before her husband was suspended from his job as a teacher of literature.

“When Murat opened the door,” Oral told daily Cumhuriyet, “Seven or eight police officers entered with long-barrel guns and masks. They let me take my baby with me and started searching the room, saying they were members of the anti-terror team and had a court order to capture him.”

No reason was given for the detention of Özyaşar, who was also a contributor to daily Evrensel. After being taken into custody, he was taken to the Istanbul police headquarters together with his computer drive and memory sticks. On the same night, he was transferred to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. 

Özyaşar was detained with others in line with a state of emergency decree published in the Official Gazette after the attempted July 15 failed coup.

Meanwhile, Evrensel correspondent Cemil Uğur was arrested in the southern province of Mersin late on Oct. 6 after previously spending 16 days in custody alongside a colleague. 

Another journalist, Etkin News Agency’s (ETHA) Mehmet Anıl, was also arrested Oct. 7 in nearby Adana.