Turkish court upholds life sentences for prominent journalists

Istanbul (dpa) - An Istanbul court on Tuesday upheld the life terms for six people, including three prominent journalists, who had been convicted for links to the plotters of an attempted coup in 2016, state news agency Anadolu reported.Ahmet Altan, his brother Mehmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak were sentenced for their alleged ties to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of plotting the abortive putsch by a faction of the military.The Altan brothers were staunch critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and worked for opposition media outlets. Ilicak wrote for a newspaper linked to the Gulen movement.The Istanbul appeals court also upheld aggravated life sentences against three other journalists - Fevzi Yazici, Yakup Simsek and Sukru Tugrul Ozsengul - who were also convicted for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, Anadolu reported.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders described Tuesday‘s ruling as "a barbaric sentence, and an extremely worrying precedent. This is nothing but judicial lynching."In June, Mehmet Altan was released after 21 months in prison. Prosecutors accused him of making televised statements on July 14, 2016 - the day before the attempted coup - in which he expressed support for a military intervention to topple Erdogan.Turkey‘s Constitutional Court in January ruled in favour of Altan, saying his rights had been violated and ordered him to be freed.However, lower courts later overruled that verdict, and Altan was kept behind bars, leading to sharp criticism from the Council of Europe, a rights watchdog, and prompting concerns about the rule of law in the country.