Turkish court frees daily Sozcu correspondent

By Muhammed Enes Can

ISTANBUL (AA) - A criminal court in Istanbul ordered Wednesday the release of a daily Sozcu correspondent, who had been held in custody since May on the charge of assisting Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The 37th Heavy Criminal Court ordered Bekir Gokmen Ulu's release after dropping the charge of "willfully assisting a terrorist organization without getting involved in its hierarchical structure".

Ulu was remanded in custody along with the newspaper's website manager, Mediha Olgun as part of a probe into the terrorist group's media links.

Hours before last year's July 15 coup attempt was launched, Ulu wrote a report titled "SOZCU tracks down Erdogan", pinpointing President Erdogan's location, accompanied by photos.

Even the president's aide-de-camp did not know his exact address and was trying to get in touch with presidential officials to find out, the Istanbul Caglayan Court said in its ruling at the time.

Erdogan, who was on vacation at a Marmaris hotel on that day, told CNN international last September that he would have been killed by a team of special operations forces had he stayed there 15 minutes longer.

Orchestrated by FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen, the defeated July 2016 coup attempt left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

FETO is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, and has also accused it of infiltrating other countries through educational institutions, among others.