Court frees Turkish academics pending possible fresh charges

A Turkish court in Istanbul on Friday freed four academics from high-security prisons who were on trial for spreading "terrorist propaganda" as prosecutors said they were seeking to have them charged with insulting the state.

The court released the four "pending permission from the justice ministry for prosecution under 301 of the Turkish penal code" lawyer Benan Molu told AFP. The academics are being prosecuted for signing a petition denouncing the government's military operations against Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast,

The petition urged Ankara to halt "its deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region", infuriating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the dons had fallen into a "pit of treachery".

The four were accused of engaging in "terrorist propaganda" and "inciting hatred and enmity" for not only signing the plea but making a statement on the same lines on 10 March, a day before the petition was published.

If convicted of those charges, Esra Mungan Gursoy, Meral Camci, Kivanc Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya would have faced up to seven and a half years behind bars, according to Academics for Peace (BAK), the organisation behind the contested statement.

Turkey is waging an all-out offensive against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with military operations backed by curfews aimed at flushing out rebels from several southeastern urban centres.

The offensive comes after the breakdown last summer of a ceasefire between the Turkish state and Kurdish rebels in a period that has seen Kurdish groups launch a string of deadly bombing attacks targeting military personnel.

But Kurdish activists say dozens of civilians have died as a result of excessive force employed by state forces during the campaign.

The decision to haul scholars and journalists into court has deepened unease over freedom of expression under the increasingly autocratic Erdogan.

The US and European Union have already expressed concern over the trial of two journalists of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, for publishing articles accusing the government of delivering weapons to Islamist fighters in Syria.

Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the leading opposition daily, and Erdem Gul, his Ankara bureau chief, face life in prison over their story.