A court in Ankara has ordered the release of Alican Uludağ three months after the Deutsche Welle reporter was taken into custody, his lawyer Abbas Yalçın told dpa on Thursday.
Uludağ is expected to be released later on Thursday from the Silivri prison complex in Istanbul, the lawyer said.
The legal process is not over, however, with the next hearing in the case scheduled for September 18.
According to the indictment, the journalist is accused of insulting the president, spreading misleading information and denigrating Turkey. The charges relate in part to comments made by Uludağ on the social media platform X.
Uludağ, who took part in the hearing via video link, denies the allegations. He has been working as a reporter for Deutsche Welle for several years and was detained in February. The German government had called for his release.
According to the German international broadcaster, his reporting focused on the judicial system, human rights violations and cases of corruption in Turkey.
Turkey ranks 163rd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index. A large proportion of the media in Turkey is under direct or indirect government control.
