ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Friday released a respected reporter who was controversially ordered to return to prison by text message three months ago.
Independently run Cumhuriyet newspaper writer Baris Pehlivan has been jailed on various charges five times in the past three years. The 40-year-old´s lawyer said Pehlivan walked out of Istanbul´s high-security Marmara prison after the latest case against him was dropped. Pehlivan was charged with insulting a public official over a book in which he accused former interior minister Suleyman Soylu of links to organised crime.