One of Turkey’s most celebrated contemporary novelists appeared in court for the first time Thursday on charges of terror propaganda, as the authorities detained a leading investigative journalist over his tweets.

Novelist Asli Erdogan has been held in jail for 132 days since her detention over her links to a pro-Kurdish newspaper, in a case that has caused an international outcry over freedom of expression in the country.

Also on trial in the same case is Necmiye Alpay, an internationally prominent linguist who has also made widely praised translations of Western novels into Turkish. She has been held behind bars for 120 days.

They were taken into custody in August as part of a probe into the now shut-down pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem, which the authorities regard as a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Meanwhile the authorities on Thursday detained prize-winning journalist Ahmet Sik in a separate case over a succession of tweets and articles for an opposition daily.

Sik was detained on accusations of making “terror propaganda” and denigrating the Turkish Republic, the judicial authorities and police, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

It said he had been detained over tweets about the PKK, as well as articles for the Cumhuriyet opposition daily that criticised the Turkish secret services.

In a final tweet Thursday morning Sik wrote: “I am being taken to prosecutors because of a tweet.”

Source: AFP