‘Nothing has changed’ in Turkey, says freed German journalist

German journalist Mesale Tolu, who faces terror charges in Turkey, has arrived back home, but warned that “nothing has changed” about Turkey’s human rights situation, even after she was unexpectedly allowed to leave the country.

Tolu, of Turkish origin, spent months in pre-trial detention in Istanbul before being conditionally released in December. But her travel ban was only recently lifted amid a thaw in relations between Ankara and Berlin.

“I can’t really be happy about being able to leave, because I know that nothing has changed in the country where I was locked up,” the 34-year-old tells a news conference after landing at Stuttgart airport.

“I don’t think that anything has changed in the country in the direction of democratization,” she adds.

Tens of thousands of “colleagues, opposition figures, lawyers and students” remain behind bars, she notes, caught up in a mass crackdown following a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Tolu herself was arrested in late April 2017 on charges of membership of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), which is banned in Turkey as a terror organization.

She was held in an Istanbul prison for nearly eight months, with her now 3-year-old son staying with her for most of that time.

Tolu’s trial will continue in her absence. The next hearing is scheduled for October 16.

— AFP