This archive report was first published on 12 November 2019.
On November 4, 2019, a Turkish court made headlines by releasing veteran journalists Ahmet Altan and Nazli Ilicak from jail, despite their conviction for 'helping a terrorist group.'
However, their freedom was short-lived, as an arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday after the chief public prosecutor appealed against the decision to release Altan, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Altan, a novelist, has been accused of having links to the outlawed movement of US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of ordering the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
Gulen denies the accusation, and Altan has repeatedly denied any involvement in the failed coup, calling such accusations 'grotesque.'
Altan and Ilicak were initially sentenced to life in prison last year, but a top appeals court quashed the verdict in July and ordered a retrial on a different charge.
