ISHR welcomes news of the release of Turkish human rights advocate, journalist, and 2012 Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability (AHDA) Fellow Murat Çelikkan from prison on Saturday, October 21, 2017.
Çelikkan was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison in Turkey for participating in the Editors-in-Chief on Watch campaign for Özgür Gündem daily, a newspaper that was closed through a statutory decree issued under Turkey's State of Emergency.
Çelikkan entered Kırklareli Prison on August 14, and was transferred to open prison on October 14.
Following his transfer, his attorneys submitted a motion requesting that he be released on probation.
Çelikkan has been working as a reporter, editor, columnist and editor-in-chief for over 25 years. He has actively taken part in the human rights movement; he founded the Human Rights Association, Amnesty International Turkey, Helsinki Citizens’ Association and took place in the board of directors. He worked on projects concerning the Kurdish question and media ethics.
Çelikkan is the director at Truth, Justice, Memory Center of which he is among the founders. He was a participant in the 2012 AHDA Fellowship with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
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