Lawmakers urge Turkey to free journalist

Dozens of German lawmakers called on Turkey to release a journalist for the Die Welt newspaper who is being held on terrorism-related charges.

The German daily said its correspondent Deniz Yucel, 43, was detained on Feb 18 and his apartment searched in connection with news reports on an attack by hackers on the e-mail account of Turkey’s energy minister.

The minister, Berat Albayrak, is a son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The paper says Yucel, who presented himself at the Istanbul police headquarters for questioning on Feb 14, is accused of “being a member of a terrorist organisation, misuse of data and terrorist propaganda”.

A spokesman for the German foreign ministry said the government had “not the slightest information” suggesting that Yucel had violated his journalistic duties. — AFP